Nightweaver, Year Two
by Ubiytsa
Summary: The thief turned vigilante Nightweaver returns from the grave to hunt down his enemy, Black Mask. Enlisting the help of anybody that will listen, Simon Weaver builds the ultimate living arsenal to take down his long time enemy. Will he succeed in taking him down in attempt two? Or will he fall victim to more of Roman's tricks? Only time will tell.
1. Chapter 1 Fresh Beginnings

**A/N - This is, as the title implies, the sequel to Nightweaver Year One. As a foreword, it isn't **_**exactly **_**after Year One; this is simply Nightweaver's second year as a vigilante. What happened between Year One and Year Two will be covered throughout this, I promise. While this **_**is **_**a Titans fanfic, they will not personally make a major appearance for a few chapters. Never fear, they'll get here. Without further hesitation, get ta' steppin'.**

Nightweaver sat in his chair, high in a hotel in Gotham, overlooking the heart of the city. The New Year's Ball was raised high above the crowds, shimmering from the massive amount of lights surrounding it. The crowd below him began counting down; in ten seconds, the year would be over, marking his second actually on the Earth, fighting as a vigilante. He'd spent time in a number of places; the Phantom Zone for several months, Hell itself for almost a year, and even longer as a ghost. He was brought back to life by Raven after his archnemesis, the Black Mask, had been spotted again. He escaped, but barely, and Nightweaver was coming to exact his revenge.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight. As the seconds passed by, he thought about how much his life had changed in the past two years. He'd left a life of crime, become a Teen Titan, met some girls. He'd become a multimillionaire. He'd watched Black Mask shoot the two women he cared about in his life in the face, causing him to give up on living and shoot himself.

_I literally fought my way back out of Hell. I'd say that's pretty damn good. Roman Sionis, be ready._

Seven.

Six.

Five.

_So much has changed since then. I'm a different person. I'm more than ready to kill him again._

Four.

Three.

Two. He started to actually shift attention to the celebration in the final second, looking just in time to watch the ball drop.

_Now everything has changed. New beginning._ His communicator pinged, and he checked the message. Robin had put out an alert.

_We need all active Titans in Jump. The Riddler has been spotted setting up for what looks like a massive attack on the Tower._ A second came in, clearly a personal message instead of a group one. _Weaver, if you think you're ready, Batman could lend you the Batwing. He's offered to let you take it there. Autopilot will bring it back to him, so don't worry about the return._ He cracked his neck and unzipped his duffel bag, revealing the armor set that Cyborg had made for him so long ago. He was suited up within minutes, a feeling of familiarity rising up and enveloping him as he clicked each armor piece into place on the previous one. He called Batman on the communicator; Alfred answered.

"Batman told me to be expecting a call from you. I take it that you have need of the Batwing?"

"Just open the cave. I'll be there." He hung up, opened the hotel window, and jumped out. He was about two hundred feet off the ground when he shot a grappling hook out from his wrist launcher, latching onto a nearby building and swinging; his feet nearly skidded the ground as it reached the lowest part of the arc, and he launched himself as he began to reach his maximum momentum. He moved from building to building until he reached Wayne Manor, glad to see that the entrance to the Batcave was wide open. He swung inside, narrowly missing hitting his head on the top, landing in a roll to distribute his momentum correctly. Alfred was standing in front of him, giving a light applause.

"Master Wayne has quite a knack for theatrics, but I must say, that was well done." Batman approached him, and Nightweaver rose to his full height, only a few inches shorter than the Dark Knight now.

"Are you sure you're ready to do this?"

"Not at all."

"It takes time, Simon."

"I've taken enough time. I just need to distract myself from my own thoughts."

"You forget that I've been through the same thing. I know what you're going through, dealing with your friends' deaths. Just be glad you were able to bring them back."

"I am. I just need to get back into my normal routine and I'll be fine."

"Be careful. In your current state, you're very exploitable."

"I will. Thanks for the ride." He walked to the Batwing, popped the windscreen, got inside and took off.

Almost an hour later, thanks to the Batwing being _much _faster than any normal jet, Nightweaver brought the plane down for a landing. His communicator buzzed, and he got tired of it and patched it into the HUD of his armor. Batman popped up in front of his right eye.

"Just eject. The autopilot will bring it back to me." He didn't bother responding, he just slapped the button and launched the seat out of the cockpit. He jumped out and grappled onto a nearby building. As he descended, Raven appeared out of a portal and grabbed him out of the air, lowering him in front of her.

"Nice to see you too, Raven."

"I didn't think you would come."

"Neither did Batman. That doesn't matter."

"The others are in the Tower."

"Take me there, then." The both vanished in a black puff of energy, rising up out of twin portals in the main room of Titans Tower. The rest of the Titans, including Catgirl, were all surrounding the computer, staring up at the screen. Nobody seemed to notice them.

"Now, if I'm correct, the Riddler has made a mistake in assuming we would think he's made a mistake; instead of going to the marina, we need to check downtown. He's a genius. Geniuses don't make mistakes that painfully obvious," Robin explained. Nightweaver had gotten behind the group and spoke up.

"If you think he thinks you think he's made a mistake, what if he's another step ahead of you? He knows that you're almost as good at this as Batman." They turned, most of them looking surprised to see him. He glanced at Kitrina, who was just looking around the room, as if trying to keep herself from looking at him. Robin extended a gloved hand, and he shook it.

"We didn't think you would want to come. It's nice to have you back, at least for now."

"Thanks. I just felt like I needed to." Beast Boy looked up to him, his previous disposition towards him seemingly gone.

"What's it been like in Gotham? Have you been working with Batman?"

"I haven't done much of anything. I've just been trying to figure things out."

"Batman's not the most fun person to work with," Robin noted. "There's a _lot _more rules than you'd expect. He treats you more like a liability than help."

"Back to Riddler," Nightweaver said, bringing the conversation back away from him. "We should probably check both spots, just in case. What kind of attack are we looking at?"

"Do you really want to know?" Raven asked in her usual monotone.

"He's been leaving question mark shaped packs of C4 on the Tower," Cyborg explained. "Found them all cause they've got a sucky remote detonator, easy to detect with a simple scan." He retrieved one of such detonators from the table and showed it to him, then tossed it back down.

"And I take it there appears to be stockpiles in both sections?"

"Exactly," Robin interjected.

"I'll take downtown, you guys get the marina."

"Don't be stupid. We'll go as a group." Catgirl finally spoke up.

"The girls can head to the marina, the guys can go downtown." She walked away, leaving before anybody could argue against her idea.

"What's with her?" Cyborg asked, obviously irritated by how she'd been acting.

"What was she like before I got here?" Weaver asked.

"A little less quiet, but not by much."

"She's just mad at me. It'll pass."

"It's not like it was your fault, Simon," Robin said, trying to make him feel better.

"Nightweaver. Simon's dead and gone. And I know. There was nothing I could do to stop it. She's just mad that I chose her to die. Let's not talk about this and just get going."

"Alright. Titans, go!"

Nightweaver dropped from the top of a department store in a crouch, surrounding himself with Riddler's thugs.

_Or at least who I'm hoping are Riddler's thugs._

"Get the hell outta here, suit! This don't concern you!"

"_Everything_ concerns me." He jumped up and kicked the thug in front of him, pushing off of his chest with his second foot and doing a full backflip. As he landed, he brought his elbow down on the neck of the thug behind him, knocking him out as he spun into a backfist, knocking the third out. There was only one left, and he grabbed his weapon with a grappling hook before he could attack him; he spun it around and around, wrapping him in it, then held a taser to the cord.

"This taser is more than enough to put you in unimaginable pain. The cord that hook is attached to _does _conduct electricity. You don't tell me who you're working for, I think you can figure out what I do next."

"Enigma! He called himself Enigma!"

"For being such a genius, Riddler sure is a moron. Edward E. Nigma. Robin, I think I've got the shipment." He opened the truck they had just finished loading boxes into; there was a TV inside, and it flickered to life. The Riddler appeared on screen.

"Nice to see you, Nightweaver. You seem to think you've unfoiled my plot, but I promise, this is just the beginning! You may want to go back to your precious tower now. Cyborg didn't seem to account for the fact that I'm smarter than all of you combined!" Weaver clicked a button on his wrist; Edward hit the button on his cane, and nothing happened.

"You didn't seem to account for the fact that I've got some new toys. Signal jammer. Already figured out the frequency that you were using. Won't work anymore unless I turn this off."

"You see, but I did. This is all just a ruse for my friend."

"And you're telling me this why?"

"Because I know how much everybody loves the Scarecrow!"

"Robin, you hear that?" The Boy Wonder dropped down behind him.

"Fear gas is coming out of a manhole right behind you. Let's go. Riddler's not even in the city. The bombs don't work."

"Nice talking to you, asshole." He kicked the TV screen in and walked away; Robin opened up the sewer entrance and dropped inside, Nightweaver following closely behind him.

"What's the plan?"

"Gas masks on. We see Scarecrow, we drop him as quickly as possible," Robin ordered. "He's capable of essentially taking us down in one hit."

"TOO LATE!" he screamed from behind them, stabbing them both with his FEAR injectors. He ran off, disappearing into the darkness.

"Hey kid! Turn around!" Weaver spun around in a kick; Black Mask caught it and punched him in the face, then flipped him over, landing him face first in sewage.

"Oh god, that's fucking disgusting!" He rushed forward and tackled him, smashing his back against the concrete wall.

"Robin! Fight me like a man!" Slade yelled. The hero agreed, pushing his attacker away from him, back into the sewage, and jumped on top of him, marauding his face with punches. Nightweaver grabbed one of Black Mask's flailing fists, cracking his wrist by yanking his hand to the side and pushing him off of him. Robin fell into the sewage himself and rolled away from Slade; Robin and Nightweaver stood several feet apart from each other, hallucinating that they were each other's worst enemies.

"You're going down, Sionis," Weaver spouted.

"I'm going to kill you _and _your friends," Robin heard Slade say.

"You aren't winning this time, Slade," Robin retorted.

"How many times to I have to kill your girlfriend for you to just give up?" Nightweaver hallucinated Black Mask saying. They rushed towards each other; both of them landed punches square in the jaw, and they knocked each other out, thankfully landing mostly on the concrete sidewalks instead of in the sewer water.

Robin came to; Nightweaver had been knocked out as well, and he shook him back into consciousness.

"Get up. Slade's down here somewhere."

"Ugh.. Where the hell were you? Black Mask showed up and knocked me out. You just disappeared."

"Fear."

"What?"

"FEAR. Scarecrow must have gotten us. Slade attacked me, and you were gone too, but obviously we were in the same area. We must have been fighting each other."

"We're telling everybody else that I knocked you out."

"We knocked each other out. Let's just say that we fought Scarecrow and he got away."

"Agreed."


	2. Chapter 2 Changes

"So," Robin started awkwardly. Nightweaver dreaded the coming question. "What's been going on with you? We haven't really talked since you got back, and it's been almost two months."

"Use your imagination," he responded blankly, not wanting to talk about the past.

"Seriously. Just talk and let it be done."

"Broke up with Kitrina. She hates me. I've been training almost nonstop to keep my mind off of it. I went to Slade and Batman both for more training. When I'm not training, I'm making mods to my armor. Like the wrist claws. I've got extendable boot knives now. Anything I can do to stop my mind from wandering to _this exact subject_. So yeah, I've been pretty shitty, and I'd rather leave it at that." He wiped the last of the sewage off of him and went to climb the ladder, but Robin put a gloved hand on his shoulder.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Hit me."

"Do you think I could make it on my own?"

"Probably. You're like a mini-Batman."

"That's exactly what I meant. I've been trying to come up with my own persona, reinvent myself out of being Robin."

"What do you mean?"

"I think I'm going to give Batman back the costume. I was talking to Superman, and he gave me an idea, some animal on Krypton. The closest translation to English was Nightwing."

"Talk to Wayne. Don't just drop it on him."

"I'm just sick of living in his shadow, you know?"

"Do what you feel is right." He climbed the ladder, exiting the sewers and emerging out into the street. He helped Robin get out, then popped his neck. He heard a thud behind him and spun around. Catgirl had just landed behind them.

"You two alright? We tried to get a hold of you, but we lost your signals."

"We're fine." He shot a grappling line up and pulled himself onto the nearest skyscraper, landing cleanly on the roof. He sat down, legs dangling over the edge, and stared out into the city.

_I really need to grow the fuck up. Running away from my ex like that. Even when she was just trying to check on me._

"You alright?" He turned to see Kitrina standing over him, her mask pulled off and in her hand. She sat down next to him, looking away.

"Fine." She turned to him, trying to look into his eyes, but he was staring straight down at the street below them.

"I'm sorry, Simon. I know that you didn't have much of a choice. I shouldn't be judging you for making an impossible decision. I'm glad you at least tried to save one of us. I'm sorry I hurt you."

"I miss you."

"What?"

"Nevermind. I know you're just trying to make me feel better."

"I don't blame you for making a choice. You could have just not told me and the only other one who would know would be Raven."

"You're a good girl, Kitrina. Don't waste your time on me. Find somebody who deserves you more." He let himself fall off of the building, swinging away as he did so. He made his way back home, first crossing downtown, then moving through the warehouse district, then into his driveway. He checked his communicator, ignoring two messages, one from Kitrina and one from Robin. As he looked back up to walk inside, he saw Catgirl standing in the doorway.

"You move fast."

"Yeah. And as for what you said earlier, _no._" She walked away, leaving him slightly confused. He walked into his house and went upstairs, sitting down on his bed. He stayed in place for a long time, trying to think about what had just happened.

The next day, Nightweaver woke with a start; his communicator was blaring on full alert. He answered it, seeing Robin on the other end.

"What is it?"

"Scarecrow. You and me. He's in the warehouse district, near you."

"I'm on it. Where are the others?"

"Kitrina's gone dark."

"We had a confrontation," he noted as he started putting his armor on.

"How bad was it?"

"I have no idea. The others?"

"Making sure it's not a ploy by somebody else, patrolling the city."

"Good. I'll be there in a minute."

Weaver swung low and rolled on the asphalt, coming to a standing position next to Robin. They watched calmly as Scarecrow ran into a warehouse, screaming maniacally.

"Ready?"

"Absolutely. Watch my back, I watch yours." Robin took the lead, kicking the door in and looking around. Scarecrow had taken his mask off, revealing Jonathan Crane.

"End of the line, Scarecrow. We're taking you in." He began laughing, seemingly mocking Robin's threat.

"He's serious, scumbag." He just kept on laughing, and Robin's eyes widened. He rushed forwards, shouting something about Joker Toxin. He tried to hold his jaw in place, but Scarecrow kept laughing until he ran out of oxygen in his lungs and died, his face disfigured in a smile. There was a slip of paper in his pocket; Simon plucked it out and unfolded it.

_Robin and Nightweaver. I'm sure you've just watched me die. I needed to give you a piece of this puzzle, so that maybe the one searching for my head can be caught. I was not killed by the Joker. I inhaled his toxin to kill myself. All I know right now is that there is an assassin following me; who, I do not know, but he was sent by somebody far more powerful. I-_

Before Weaver could finish reading, the door was kicked open behind them. Slade stepped in over the threshold, and Robin immediately tensed up.

"_Slade!_" he hissed, at the ready in seconds.

"I'm not here to fight, Robin. I saw my good friend here alive and well again and wanted to speak to him. Congratulations on _not being dead again._ I might know who was following your buddy here."

"You're the assassin. We aren't stupid."

"If I was, you'd both be dead. I've got a lead. Weaver, let's go."

"He's right, Robin. I'll be back."

Deathstroke lead Robin into the Joker's Jump City headquarters.

"He said it wasn't the clown."

"This hasn't been Joker's in a while. It belongs to a certain Penguin now." He pushed the door open and they saw it in total disarray.

"Looks like a tornado came through here."

"That's normal. Joker's goons are maniacs." They descended down further, finding traces of blood, which Deathstroke continued to mark as entirely normal for a Joker Clan hideout. They reached the final back room and Deathstroke pushed the door open.

Oswald Cobblepot was lying against a table inside, a nail through each of his hands, with a mask stapled to his face and a bullet through his head. Blood was sprayed across his chest; written in front of him in it on the ground was a message that could only be for Weaver.

_YOU'RE NEXT, KID._

"NO! Not again! Not again not again not again not again!" Weaver started to lose his breath, first hyperventilating, then sucking in incredibly deep breaths. He rushed out of the hideout, Deathstroke shouting after him with no effect. He ran and ran, sprinting through the streets, jumping over cars. Everywhere he looked, he saw the faintest signs of a black skull, and every time he did, he ran that much faster. He reached home, shouldered the door open, ran into the basement, and locked himself in the panic room. His mind was racing and he couldn't focus on anything but the sense of impending doom that Black Mask brought him.

_This didn't happen last time! What the hell is wrong with me? Get a grip! GET A GRIP!_ He forced himself to come down from the panic, slowly willing himself back into a normal state of mind. He was just about back to being calm when Raven materialized through the door.

"I felt that all the way across the city. You alright?"

"Not at all. Black Mask is back. He made Scarecrow kill himself, and killed the Penguin."

"We're ready for him this time, Simon. And don't you _dare _tell me not to call you that anymore. You're not right right now.


	3. Chapter 3 The Plan

"Look, Robin, I know that you could use me here, but I feel like I need to find Black Mask and finish this."

"I understand entirely. Where will you go?"

"I need to find Slade. He's been searching for Sionis since I died."

"Be careful with him."

"We've never had a problem before. Doubt we will now. Nightweaver out." He blinked the communicator feed away from his HUD and looked around. He'd already left Jump; he knew Robin would agree. He was standing outside of one of Deathstroke's hideouts, a warehouse in central Chicago. Nightweaver picked the lock and entered quietly. He hadn't gotten ten steps in before a broadsword was at his throat.

"Weaver."

"Slade. Good to see you too."

"Heard you were back in the game. Figured you'd come here. Hunting Sionis?"

"To the grave. Gotta verify this time." He pulled his sword away and slid it into the sheath on his back. Weaver turned and extended a hand, and the mentor and apprentice reunited as they shook hands.

"We've lost track of Sionis for the moment. Hope you don't mind." Slade opened a crate of MRE's and tore one open and began stuffing food into his mouth.

"Not at all. I never expected this to be easy. One step at a time."

"Deadshot's searching Asia. Falcone's cast a blanket over Europe. Catwoman has her eyes all over Gotham."

"And you?"

"I've got eyes on _everything_." A screen previously unseen flickered to life, presenting a map of the world. There were large portions of it covered in red, other, smaller areas in bright orange.

"Orange marks places he's likely in. Red are areas we know he's had activity or contact in. I've determined he's in Asia right now."

"Good. I'll get going." He went to leave, but Deathstroke stopped him with his forearm.

"You aren't ready yet, Weaver. Do some research from the outside first."

"Slade, I don't need this shit right now. I just want Roman Sionis dead."

"And how did your method last time work out? You managed to kill off two people, and neither of them were Black Mask." Weaver backhanded Deathstroke and watched as the rage grew on his face.

"Don't be a little shit. I'm trying to help you."

"Fuck you." Slade grabbed his arm and twisted it, forcing him to the ground in one quick movement.

"Squirm and I break it. We're gonna stay here until you calm down." Nightweaver shot the tasers out of his gauntlets, striking Slade in the jaw. His body went limp momentarily, giving him the edge he needed to escape. He put Deathstroke in the same position, standing over him.

"I'm going to kill him, with or without your help." Slade rolled over, forcing Weaver back onto his back and driving his knee into his throat.

"Calm. Down." Weaver breathed in and out, then spoke.

"Fine. What do you suggest we do?" Slade got off of him and extended a hand, lifting him back to his feet.

"We hit his contacts in America. Drug dealers, gun runners, casino owners, other mob bosses. We take out his influence bit by bit. He'll either run out of power and we have an even easier job killing him, or he gets pissed off enough to come after us himself, in which case we're on defense, and de-"

"Defense always gets the advantage. Got it."

"You do learn," he said smugly. "We should start in Gotham." He touched the screen and it zoomed in on Gotham's streets. "Start high. Make the job short. He wants us to think that he only controls the lower levels, that he draws money from them, but that's all a lie. Black Mask is rooted in deep. He controls _everything_, and makes it look like it's an independent organization."

"So the target is...?"

"Raul Manzanita, head of the Gothamite Drug Cartel, or GDC. Controls the flow of high quality narcotics to the richest and most corrupt."

"How do you know that?"

"A lot of my friends qualify as rich and corrupt."

"Makes sense."

"So, we take him out, take a few of his lieutenants down, and remove plenty of their product. That'll piss him off enough for now."

"Then what? We need to plan out our entire operation, or at least get an outline."

"Taking his businesses down a peg here'll destabilize the ones he has in Europe most. Asia isn't quite as affected because it operates on a different level."

"Got it. I'll head out to Gotham now. I'll meet you there." He left before Slade could say anything, leaving Deathstroke alone in the darkness of the warehouse. As he stepped outside, he felt a hard impact on the top of his head, then succumbed to the sweet callings of sleep.

Nightweaver woke up armorless and chained upside down. The room was dark, and he could only faintly make out the caped figure in front of him.

"Who the hell are you?" he sputtered out, halfway choking on the words. The figure's head bobbed up and down in what seemed to be a silent laugh. "Answer me, you scumbag!" The figure laughed aloud now, not even trying to hold it back.

"You always were the kind to act like he was in control in this kind of situation." He turned, and Red X faced Nightweaver for the first time in two years.

"Moscow."

"Just call me X now. Or Red X, I don't really care."

"Fuck you."

"My my, somebody's angry."

"I wonder why," he spat through gritted teeth.

"I won't hold you up any longer than I have to, no pun intended. I've got a proposition."

"Not interested."

"It'll help you against that pesky Black Mask character," he said, leading him on.

"Interested."

"He's got me by the balls, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. He's made me his bitch for the last few months. I can start stealing shipments of supplies from him bit by bit to help you. Just one condition."

"Name it."

"I want Kitrina back."

"Take her. She hates me now."

"What?"

"She hates me. Been like that for a while."

"Curious. She told me the other day that you two were fine."

"You've had contact with her?"

"Kitty can't keep away for too long."

"She won't even talk to me. I don't know what game she's playing. Let me down." Red X untied the chain from around his legs, and Weaver dropped to the ground. "Armor?"

"Next to you." He looked and saw that it was, in fact, directly beside him, and he quickly put it on. He slipped the helmet on and felt comfortable in his own skin once again.

"Thanks. Now, for your proposal..." He punched Red X in the side of the head, knocking him out in one strike. He removed X's belt and placed it on the ground, then tied him up with the same chain that had been used on him. X woke quickly, to his credit, and tried to free himself, but couldn't.

"Really, Simon?"

"Simon's dead. It's just Nightweaver."

"Stop with all of your melodramatic, 'boo-hoo-poor-me' act already. What do you want?"

"I get you with Kitrina and I get rid of Sionis, you stop stealing."

"What else do I do, then?"

"Be a good guy. Talk to some people. I don't know, I don't care, but its time for you to grow up."

"Not an option." Weaver tore off X's mask, revealing his old partner's face, albeit more aged.

"You still don't have a name for me, Weaver."

"No, but the Internet does." He made sure his eyepiece caught a clear glimpse of X's face, then turned away. "Search, find identity."

"You son of a bitch!"

"Jordan Terrel."

"You're dead, kid."

"I'm older than you." He threw X's mask back to him and untied him. Jordan got his gear back on and stood face-to-face with his former partner.

"You just made a big mistake." Weaver turned to the side and began pacing.

"You seem to be making the mistake here. We're two side of the same coin, you see; two thieves, one way we look at it or another. The difference is, I moved on from that. You're stuck in the same, unstable lifestyle you've always been. You're trying to grasp at that stability in Kitrina, but what happens when she gets taken away from you again? Where have you been for the last two years? Sulking? Depressed? Hiding your sorrow in whatever your vice is now?" Red X's head dipped.

"Fuck. You."

"That's all you've got to say?" X grabbed him by the chestpiece, lifting him up.

"You sacrificed your roots. You forfeited all those years of hard work, all those contacts, turned your back on _all of them_. Who's the real villain here, Simon? The guy who sticks to his guns, defends his people, tries to help them prosper, or the one who walks away from it all and joins the other side?"

"Don't act like you're supporting anybody but yourself. You only steal because you can't be bothered to help society."

"Just leave. Forget I ever said anything." Weaver went to leave, but stopped just before going through the door.

"I'll tell her where you are. You've got your chance with her. Otherwise, I don't want anything to do with this." He strolled down the hallway and exited the building, emerging on the dark streets of Chicago. It was nearly midnight, and he needed to get going to Gotham. He worked his way towards the airport, already planning on stealing a plane.

An hour and a half later, Nightweaver was flying through the sky above Chicago, well on his way to the massive city that served as Batman's hunting ground.


	4. Chapter 4 The Hunt Begins

Nightweaver's plane touched down in a field not far from the outskirts of Gotham. Whoever found it would either be delighted they had a free plane or angry that something was in their field; it didn't rightly matter. It rolled to a stop and he popped the cockpit, jumping out nimbly. As he stowed the flight gear back into the plane, he heard something behind him; he turned to see none other than Batman standing behind him.

"Nice to see you back in Gotham, Simon."

"Not Simon anymore."

"Right. Sorry. I think we should talk before you set out on anything."

"Look, Bruce, I know you're gonna try to tell me this isn't right, but this is my _last_. I may quit after we take him down."

"Not Bruce anymore. And you're right, I'm going to tell you that this isn't right. I know he's going to just escape from any jail, get out of any stipulation, fight back despite what you might do. He's a _psychopath_. That's what they do. I've dealt with him too, and he's hit me personally just as he has you."

"You keep your dedication to justice. I still believe in capital punishment." He went to walk away, but Batman stopped him.

"I'm not going to let you just take the law into your own hands like this. I've already contacted Deathstroke. He's just as happy for my alternative."

"And that is?"

"A compromise. We both know public prisons won't work. I don't want you to kill him. You want him out of the picture permanently. I could set up a prison cell in the Batcave. I personally guarantee that he'll never be able to escape it. He'd be kept alive, not starved, but nothing that would let him work his way out."

"I trust you'll keep him there for good. You've got a deal."

"No accidents. Keep your head straight."

"I will."

"The Batmobile's on it's way. Give it a minute and I'll give you a ride."

"Sorry, not interested. Got a meeting."

"At least let me drive you into town." The car pulled up, stopping right behind the Dark Knight, who opened the door and stepped in.

"I never can resist this thing."

The Batmobile pulled up into an alley deep in downtown Gotham.

"You're sure this is the place?"

"Close enough to it. Thanks for the ride, Bats." He stepped out and fired his grappling hooks up, latching onto a building and lifting himself up. The Batmobile pulled out of the alley and vanished down the street, leaving him alone again.

_Apartment building on fifth. Twelfth floor window, left side._ He jumped off of the roof and swung himself around the building until he saw the window he was searching for; it was wide open, as promised. He swung into it, rolling as he hit the floor and rising to one knee. He saw the black jeans and biker jacket and knew he was in the right place.

"Nightweaver." He stood and came face to face with the Red Hood. "Glad you came."

"Glad you're here."

"Of course I am. Ready to meet the others?"

"I guess I am." Red Hood pushed open the door out of the bedroom and into the main room of the apartment.

_Half of Batman's most wanted are here._ In front of him sat Joker, The Penguin, Two Face, and the Riddler.

"Edward, nice to see you again. Sorry for the bluntness of our last encounter."

"Apology accepted," Nigma said with a sense of disdain.

"Why've we got a cape here? We shouldn't be teamin' with capes!" Penguin shouted angrily. Red Hood stepped in front of Weaver instinctively and spoke slowly.

"You all hate Black Mask for taking your business. He hates Black Mask for his own reasons. We've been in contact for a few weeks now and I'm confident we're on level ground. If you don't betray him, he won't betray you."

"Look, we don't even need to directly cooperate. Joker, I need you and your guys to take out as many of Sionis' men as you possibly can. Penguin, you can help by taking his product. All of it. Drugs, guns, anything. Harvey, hit him in whatever way you wish."

"And for the genius?" Riddler interjected.

"I've got a special job for you. I need you to hack into their communications and give them stupid orders. Hack into their equipment and make it malfunction. Everything. They have it hooked up to a socket, I want it to blow a fuse."

"Child's play. Tell me if you need anything I learned after the fifth grade."

"And me?" Red Hood asked.

"You're with me." He opened a window and climbed out of it, shooting his grappling hooks as he did so. He was pleased to see his new ally following him, a grappling hook hitting the building just above where he'd put his. They both landed in about the same spot, rolling as they hit an overlook just above an alleyway.

"What's the plan?" Red Hood asked, stepping in front of him and looking into the alley. Weaver felt a familiar claw on his neck. He turned, having fully expected Catwoman's arrival.

"_She _was the plan. I knew you couldn't resist following the Bat."

"You should've told me you were in town, sweetie."

"Didn't think I'd need to."

"You didn't call, you didn't send flowers..."

"You don't have a phone."

"No, but I've got a lonely vase at home just _dying _for me to put something inside of it."

"Tell you what, I'll get you a nice bouquet next time I get the chance."

"How sweet of you. I'll be sure to remember that. I don't appreciate it when people break promises."

"Good for you two with all your flirty bullshit, but what do we need her for?" Red Hood asked impatiently.

"She's got all the intel on them here. That, and she's a capable fighter."

"And you don't think she's the least bit angry at you for stealing her sidekick and getting her killed?" Catwoman's face soured.

"Kids do stupid things. It isn't his fault that he made a few enemies. Or one _really _dangerous one."

"Calm down, both of you. I trust the Cat, and I trust you, so you need to trust each other, or we're all gonna have problems, and that doesn't help me- sorry, help _us_, take down Black Mask."

"He's right," Catwoman pointed out.

"Fine. What do you need from me right now? I've got other things to take care of," Red Hood responded, not happy with the lack of caution.

"I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. She gives us targets, some of my other guys handle the planning, and we all go in and take it out."

"Sounds like a plan." With a swipe at his utility belt and a shot into the air, Red Hood was gone, leaving Catwoman and Nightweaver alone in the alley. She leaned up against a wall and got comfortable.

"So, how's Kitrina been?" she asked, showing some worry on her face. It was clear to him that she'd been missing her sidekick and hoped she was alright.

"I couldn't honestly tell you," he admitted, feeling a pang of guilt as the words came out of his mouth. "She isn't exactly happy with me, as you may imagine."

"I'm not exactly up to date on you two's latest argument. I know Black Mask killed you, but past that, I don't know."

"You might be better off not knowing."

"Please? I might be able to make it worth your while."

"Or you could kill me because you're pissed."

"Your choice, honey."

"I'll pass, for now. Some other time. You might want to talk to her, though. She doesn't seem to be holding up very well."

"And you shouldn't?"

"I tend to just make things worse with her."

"I'll get around to it. And you're alright?" He looked down and shook his head.

"I've got no goddamn idea anymore. Just trying to hold everything together, focus on taking out Sionis." She got up and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to reach past the layers.

"You ever need to talk, don't h-"

"I know. I won't. I've got to go." He gently brushed her hand off of him and launched his grappling hooks away. He fled to a nearby rooftop and sat down, his head in his hands.

_What the hell is wrong with me lately? I've been coasting along, and just barely. I need to take care of my own problems before I drag other people in with me. I am going to kill Black Mask once and for all, that's for sure. I can't do it right now, though. My mental instability is my weakness right now. What can I do to fix it, though? _He struggled as he tried to clear his conscience.

_Raven. I need to talk to Raven._


	5. Chapter 5 Psych

Nightweaver paced back and forth in his suite; he felt the need to use the money he had earned off of the stock market, as opposed to letting it sit in a bank. The hotel he was staying in wasn't as close to the heart of Gotham as his last hotel. This one sat closer out to the water, giving a fantastic view that he wasn't at all interested in. He'd closed the blinds, letting the sun filter through them, but leaving the suite in relative darkness. He leaned down, opened the mini fridge, saw nothing, closed it, and began pacing again.

_Something Catwoman said must have triggered something. I feel all kinds of out of whack._ He tried to sit down and relax, but quickly grew restless and stood back up and resumed pacing. The mental pressure began to build and build until he felt he was about to explode; just as he reached his breaking point, he saw a black swirl of energy erupt in the center of his room, and Raven stepped out of it.

"Thank god you're here. Fix me."

"What?"

"Fix me. I am _broken_. Fix me."

"How exactly are you broken?"

"I don't know!"

"Look, I'm not just an instant psychiatrist. I could help you if you were _actually _insane, but I think you're just under a lot of stress."

"What do you suggest, then? I go and see some professional moron with a degree?"

"That's precisely what I'm suggesting." She grabbed him and, before he could object, the two vanished into another portal. He came out on the other side in front of an office building.

"I hate shrinks."

"Too bad. Go in there and talk to him. You've got the money for walk-ins, and then there's no name you're listed under." He turned to argue back, but she was already gone, leaving him standing alone with a choice to make.

_Bitch!_ He hesitated, but pushed the doors open and walked in. He threw two hundred dollar bills at the secretary and walked straight past her, barging into the shrink's office. Luckily for both of them, she was without a patient at the time.

"Who are you? You can't just walk right in here!" she yelled, standing up against the intrusion. Weaver was glad he wasn't in his armor for once and settled right down on the couch in the center of the room.

"I'm the guy who's gonna pay you a _lot _of money to walk in here whenever I want. Yes or no?" She hesitated for a moment.

"How much money can a punk in a hoodie have?"

"Talk to Zuckerberg, he seems to be doing well for himself. Look, I just need to be able to come here whenever. This isn't that hard, lady." He could feel the cockiness in his words and knew full well what that meant.

_I am being _especially _douchey today!_

"That's not how I typically run things."

"I don't care. Think about the money."

"Fine. What exactly is it you need to talk about?" The shrink, a tall, blonde woman in her early forties with large glasses, sat down on the couch across from him, waiting.

"I don't know, Doc."

"Okay. Let's try to figure out what's wrong first."

"Extremely stressed. Gonna hurt somebody _real _soon if I don't loosen up some tension."

"Alright. When did you start feeling this way?"

"I've been highly stressed for the last two years, but not like this."

"Let's start there, then." Nightweaver went into a long, rambling explanation of what had happened, being excruciatingly careful not to include any vital details or names that could give away his identity. He didn't want for anybody to be able to figure out he was having mental issues, and leaving no paper trail was a very important part of that.

"... so then the guy, after making me choose one of these two girls, just goes ahead and shoots them both, right in front of me."

"How did that make you feel?"

"How would you expect? I felt her blood on my face. There was blood everywhere. I still remember the gun. It was a Taurus Raging Bull. There were bits of bone fragment all over. Then I had to sit there and go through that again."

"I'm incredibly sorry for your losses."

"You don't even know what this is all about. I couldn't take it anymore."

"Many people feel that way after severe trauma. What did you do to alleviate the stress then?"

"I put a bullet through my head, that's what I did."

"Excuse me?"

"That's where this all starts to go downhill. You see, all three of us, we ended up being reunited in what you could classify as an afterlife. Problem was, it was the dominion of Trigon. We were all basically in hell."

"I'm finding this story all very hard to believe, Mr...?"

"Just call me N. There's no need for you to know my name, nor the names of the people I associate with."

"Ah, sorry. Either way, this is all _very _difficult to believe."

"So treat it like it's the truth. I don't care whether or not you believe it. I'm here for your help, not your trust."

"Understood."

"So basically, me and this first girl, we're in the same area. But Trigon's got power over the other, and he's holding her captive, because Trigon and I never got along. He wants to punish me."

"And she's where, exactly?"

"The eleventh stage of hell. We were at the thirteenth. These go in ascending order, as in number one being the highest stage, number thirty six being the deepest, darkest, most vile cesspit imaginable."

"Mmhmm." Weaver wiped some sweat off of his brow and continued on.

"Each of these levels has a different environment. Some of them were freezing cold, some were made of lava and stone, others dense forests or deserts. All very dangerous, filled with demons of all kinds. We fought through to the eleventh stage and get into a scrap with Trigon. He, of course, kicked our asses without lifting a finger and retreated to the thirty second stage."

"Oh my."

"Exactly. You can see how I've been a little stressed out."

"Of course. Now tell me, how exactly did you feel when he got away with... your girlfriend? One of your girlfriends?"

"Just friend at that point. She wasn't happy with me for picking her to die." An alarm went off, cutting Weaver short.

"I'm sorry, but I must get going. My daughter has a dance recital and I might already be late."

"I understand. I don't know when I'll be back."

"I hope soon. You have a very interesting story."

"Glad to hear that." Nightweaver got up and walked through the door, leaving the psychiatrist alone in her office. He stepped out onto the street, feeling the cool wind blowing through his hair. The vigilante looked to his left, then his right, then walked off towards his hotel.

He got off of the elevator and was entirely unsurprised to see Catwoman waiting outside of his door. He was, however, surprised that she hadn't already picked the lock.

"Ah, so you aren't dead," she noted sarcastically as he approached the door.

"Nope. Why aren't you already inside?"

"Felt like you'd be pissed off if I did."

"And Bruce is just fine with it?"

"No, he's just fun to screw with."

"To be honest, I'm more angry you'd show up when you know I've got no mask on."

"Like you care about your secret identity. And before you even start, I know that you consider your real persona dead."

"Good. I'm getting sick of telling people."

"Look, I know you're hurt and all, but it's not permanent." He swiped his keycard and entered the suite, the Cat following close behind him.

"You don't understand." She stepped in front of him, staring angrily.

"Then make me. This is what you couldn't tell me last night, isn't it? Look, you were in a situation I can't honestly expect anybody to be able to handle. No judgements here." He eyed her suspiciously, then moved to the fridge and poured himself a glass of straight vodka.

"I don't trust you on that."

"I know what Sionis does. He made my sister eat her fiance. He cut him into bits and made her eat him. It drove her insane. He's fucked up." He took a sip from the glass and sighed.

"I told him to kill her."

"What? That's a little different."

"It isn't what you're thinking."

"Then explain." She settled down on his couch, getting comfortable.

"All three of us sat down to dinner, her, Raven and I."

"Well wasn't that sweet of you."

"We got our drinks and within a minute we realized we'd been drugged. Even Raven wasn't immune to it, and the girl can practically do anything. When I woke up, they were chained and gagged to the railing, and I was tied up a little in front of them. He was standing there, massive revolver in hand."

"I see where this is going."

"He told me to make a choice. I just couldn't."

"I understand."

"He started counting down from ten. I had to choose. I thought I could save one of them. My mind was clouded, but I figured that if I let Raven live, we might be able to save Kitrina again."

"So you told him to kill her."

"I did. I didn't want her to die, but I was trying my best to make a logical decision. He wasn't true to his word. He broke my will, then spat in my face. He shot Raven next, then grabbed his shotgun and shot my kneecaps off. He left. I'm not going to lie. I broke. I didn't just break, no. I shattered. I sat there crying for what seemed like hours."

"Wait, wait, wait. How did you die, then?"

"I told you. I was a broken man. I couldn't handle life without them, either of them."

"You shot yourself." He nodded, taking in another long gulp of vodka. Catwoman looked at him, an apologetic look playing across her features. "You're gonna be alright, Simon." He let her use of his real name slide.

"So you say. We'll have to see after Black Mask is dead." He turned and walked to the window, looking out at the highrise view of Gotham. She stepped up next to him, the two taking in the view.

"Bruce never goes anywhere this nice and actually enjoys the view."

"I don't know how much I'm _enjoying _it, but I paid for the room, and that includes the windows."

"Aren't you a romantic."

"Not trying to _be _romantic."

"Sorry. Touchy subject, I know."

"It's alright. No harm done."

"What's our plan now?"

"Not sure." He looked around, scanning the rooftops nearby. Just as he did, he saw a white bolt flying towards the window. He tackled Catwoman to the ground and draped himself over her, feeling shards of glass spray over his back. A few stuck in and he wiped them off, lifting himself off of Selina afterwards.

"What the hell was that?" she asked. He looked over at the opposite wall and saw the bolt sticking out from it, a slip of paper dangling from it.

"That." Catwoman stuck the slip onto one of her claws and read it out loud.

"Meet me in Crime Alley at midnight tonight if you want help."

"I guess we're going to Crime Alley then."


	6. Chapter 6 The White Death

Nightweaver and Catwoman both dropped side by side into the center of Crime Alley. The infamous location of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne had never come back from the citywide tragedy, and it was still widely considered a slum.

"We're waiting?" she asked him, stretching out.

"We're waiting."

"Feeling any better than before?"

"I'd rather we didn't bring that up."

"Look, you're a good guy. You care enough to try and hunt down somebody not even Br- err, Batman could take down. I couldn't take him down."

"Neither could I the first time. I'm not even sure I can now. I'm sorry, just talking about that deal pissed me off."

"It's alright, I-" They were interrupted by the materialization of a figure in all white, wearing large, baggy clothes. He couldn't tell a thing about the person under the costume, not even gender. It appeared as if out of thin air, and spoke quickly.

"Active camouflage. Don't be alarmed." The garbled voice immediately told Nightweaver that this person was _very _interested in keeping their identity secret.

"We're here. Talk to us," he said, impatiently.

"I go by White Death. You are to know me by no other name. One million to find Roman Sionis and take him out. I fail, I pay you back double what you gave me. I take payment before I start the job."

"I'm not giving you a million without you at least starting the job, not without some form of guarantee you'll do it."

"I figured you'd say that." It yanked two pistols out of it's holsters, and Catwoman immediately grabbed one, with Nightweaver taking the others.

"They were my first guns in the business. They mean a lot to me. I'll take them back when the job is done."

"We've already got Deathstroke," Weaver noted. "We may not need you."

"He's an amateur."

"How so?"

"No tact. You may be wondering why you've never heard of me. That would be because I go to great lengths to keep myself hidden."

"I've noticed," Selina quipped.

"One of the requirements of the contract is that you don't speak of me ever again after it's been completed. All of my clients are bound by this. Under no other circumstance will I turn on you, but if you mention my name to _anybody_ that doesn't know it already, I will find you, and I will kill you."

"Somebody's a little feisty."

"Catwoman, please. Look, we'll have to think about it," Weaver explained.

"Tomorrow, midnight, same place, final chance." It vanished, leaving the two alone. Nightweaver walked away, Catwoman following close behind. She wrapped one of her arms through his, clinging to him. He shrugged her off and kept walking.

"You should relax. You're too stressed out."

"It's not just that. I don't know where I stand with Raven. I know Kitrina's probably never going to understand, so that's over, but I don't see it helping anything in the end, at least not right now." She looked disappointed for a moment, but her expression quickly changed to a more kind one quickly.

"You're right. I don't want to cause unnecessary drama."

"And now you know why I'm starting to hate teenage girls."

"Of course." He turned to her and looked her in the eyes, pausing for a moment.

"Look, thank you for caring. This isn't anything about you. From what I know about you, you're a good person. I just don't want to have to deal with other people's shit right now." She smirked and brushed past him, preparing to a nearby fire escape.

"Thanks. Tell me when you need me." She started to jump up, but he yelled after her.

"Wait! You don't have to leave." She turned and eyed him carefully, not sure what to make of the situation. "I'm not going to pretend that I want to be alone right now. I just need you to not take it the wrong way." Catwoman stepped down from the ladder and stopped in front of him.

"Well, let's go then."

"Nothing serious. Not trying to do anything stupid." She smiled, amused at his nervousness.

"Don't worry about it. Seriously." She grabbed his arm, clung onto his waist, and looked at him, waiting for him to use his grappling hook. "Not my first time." He remembered all of a sudden that Batman had a grappling hook and fired his up, dragging himself and Catwoman onto the building they had just been next to. She stepped away from him, and he looked at her oddly.

"I've got to take care of something back at my apartment. I'll meet you at the hotel."

"You don't want me to come with you?"

"You could if you want. Didn't think you'd be interested in helping me feed my cats."

"Gladly. Just a little paranoid." She turned and jumped off towards her apartment, and Weaver followed.

"Of what?" she asked between jumps.

"People I ally myself with tend to go missing the moment I look away," he responded the next time they were side by side.

"I get that. I've been the one that's gone missing before. That's why Bruce never wants me around anymore. Thinks I'm a burden."

"I feel bad for him, I really do."

"I do too, it's just difficult to deal with at times."

"Just try and remember he's been through a lot, and at a young age."

"So were a lot of people."

"Just don't be hard on him."

"I try not to be." They arrived at the side of her apartment building, a small building on the slummy side of town.

"_This_ is where you live?"

"Yeah. I don't steal much anymore."

"You've screwed Bruce Wayne on multiple occasions and the rich bastard won't even buy you a decent apartment?"

"Never asked him to. Felt like he had more important things to do."

"Well, you definitely need an upgrade. I'd be glad to help. I'm not doing all that much with my money anyways."

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, smiling at him sweetly.

"Well, how does Kyle Manor sound to you? Also, no, I don't count this as gold digging." She turned and dragged a claw along his jawline.

"Call it what you like, you're still buying me things. I think it sounds perfect."

Almost an hour later, the two finally arrived back in Weaver's suite. He immediately set out a large piece of paper and taped it flat on the table.

"What's that for?" she asked, pulling her mask off. Her short hair fluffed out of it, and she flattened it down as she walked over beside him.

"We're going to plan out a bit of your mansion."

"Well, what's our price limit?"

"I've had some stockbrokers playing with my finances for a few months now, and since I had five million to throw around, you can probably assume I've got some pretty good cash going on."

"Nice. I don't want anything too big. Not like Wayne Manor. Something big enough so I'd never have to worry about not having enough space, but not so massive that you'd need a map."

"Robin still occasionally talks about that, you know."

"He was always a good kid."

"Alright. I'm thinking only two wings, and a false sewer hideout."

"False sewer?"

"We have them build a false sewer tunnel from here to here," he said, drawing lines under the ground line. "Then, we take out a chunk of the wall and replace it with a deep, underground fortress. Lead lined, of course. It'll be hard to secure enough lead once we hit a certain size, though."

"Do you know how Bruce got his? I know the Batcave is."

"The cave was naturally done like that. The rocks that make it up are made of dense granite and lead."

"One of the few things that might be hard to buy and the bastard ends up with it for free."

"I'll have my architect draw up some plans and see how you like it."

"Thanks for this, Simon. It's really nice of you. Bruce has been giving me enough money to survive on, but not much else."

"Like you said, he's got a lot on his mind." Almost on cue, there was a knock at the door. Weaver opened it up and was surprised to find Batman himself. Selina was behind Simon, the same look of shock on her face.

"He _can _use doors!"

"I can. Let me in, please." They stepped aside and let him through, his presence almost controlling the room.

"What's up, Bats?" Weaver asked.

"I was just checking on you. Making sure that you're not as out of it as you were the other day."

"Slowly recovering."

"Seems like a pretty fast recovery to me."

"I went and saw a psychiatrist yesterday. Helped a bit. Selina's talked me through some of it."

"Good to know. I'd like to remind you that you've got plenty of help around here. _Legal. Help._" He enunciated the last two words heavily.

"I take it you know about the people I contacted."

"Definitely. I'm fine with you working with Red Hood, and I'm glad you've limited the gang violence to attacking other gangs, but it could have disastrous results. The main gangs of Gotham united could cause more problems than you think. Be careful."

"I will. I'm not going to act like I trust those guys. I just need them to get Roman's attention."

"Good."

"Gonna warn him about _me, _too?" Selina asked, almost sarcastically. "Let the kid do his work. He isn't an idiot. He figured out who you are, and who I am, and I'm sure a bunch of other people, too."

"Good detective work doesn't mean good logic. I'm not stopping him, I'm just telling him to be careful. Have a nice evening." He half stormed, half calmly walked out of the room.

"He really doesn't look right just _walking _through a door," Weaver noted. Selina looked at him with an expression that just read _right?_, and the two returned to the table. "Next, what are we going to do about Sionis? I've got the gangs causing trouble, but we don't have a full attack plan."

"He controls damn near every abandoned warehouse. Half of them are where he assembles his guns, the other half are drug running fronts."

"So we hit the guns."

"No. Better defenses there. We shouldn't attack it head on."

"What are you suggesting, then?"

"They bring in massive crates of ammunition from black market sources. One of those crates has something explode inside of it, the heat could ignite the gunpowder in the bullets and start a nice chain reaction."

"The whole warehouse would explode if it got enough power behind it."

"And?" she asked, smirking deviously. "We can just blame it on some psycho like Joker."

"We'd be no better than Roman. I'm not objecting to killing, but I don't think planning the destruction of several buildings is something I want to do. Sorry."

"I know, I was just playing. In all seriousness, I think we should do the bomb in the ammo, just make it small enough to not start something larger than we can control. Large distraction. While they're all taking cover, we cut the power. Leave them in the dark for a few minutes, let their eyes get used to the dark. Flashbangs through all the windows, once their eyes have gotten used to the dark. They'll be so disoriented that it would almost be too easy to take them all out."

"You're smarter than you let on."

"They say that about Joker's bitch Harley too, but I've never seen anything good come out of that quack."

"Okay, but she's a psychopathic Joker fan. You're just psychopathic." She playfully smacked him and they continued on.

"Next, I say we thin his herd. Take out as many of them as possible. Then, we'd be able to take out his drug operations, and-" Selina was interrupted as a massive explosion shocked the western half of Gotham.

"What the fuck was that?!" Weaver shouted. He ran into the other room and snapped his armor on. Catwoman was already in her suit. They ran out of the door, slid the nearest window open, and jumped out, traveling as quickly as they good to the epicenter of the explosion. They both stopped on a building and watched in awe.

Red Hood was single-handedly taking on an entire platoon of Black Mask's men. The False Facers tried and tried to shoot him down, but he was moving so quickly, aiming so precisely with his pistols, that they couldn't hope to hit him. He whittled the men down until only one was left standing, and he dispatched him with a midair roundhouse kick. He dropped like a rock, leaving Red Hood the last man standing. Nightweaver dropped down beside him, putting his hand on his back.

"You alright?"

"Fine."

"What the hell was that?"

"Got sick of waiting on your slow ass. Just took out one of his gun storage warehouses."

"Wait, let me guess!" Catwoman interjected, and Nightweaver couldn't resist laughing.

"Bomb in an ammo crate." She looked at Nightweaver, who was just trying to keep himself contained.

"Look, we got contacted by a professional assassin," Weaver said after recovering. "Says that he...she... it... Screw it, I don't know. Says they're better than Deathstroke. We might be able to cut the head right off of the snake."

"Sounds good to me. You know where to find me." He walked away, obviously irritated.

"He really _is not _growing on me," Selina complained.

"Let's head back and just count this as first strike."

"I am impressed with his fighting though, that was pretty good."

They returned to the suite, and Catwoman immediately disappeared into one of the back rooms. She came back wearing a plaid shirt and jeans; he still hadn't seen her in just civilian clothes.

"I'm not going out again tonight. Screw that."

"I take it you're spending the night here?"

"Beds are a little more comfortable than in my apartment. And no, I'm not sleeping with you."

"Wasn't even gonna ask. So, are we gonna hire this "White Death" person, or no?"

"I'd say yes. Worse comes to worse, we kick his ass."

"You sure it's a 'he'?"

"Nope. Just too lazy to keep up with 'it'."

"Well, it's about one now, so I say we get up at about ten and get to work."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning, then. Shouldn't have bothered getting dressed..." she muttered as she walked off into her room. Weaver's Titans communicator buzzed; he'd reactivated it since he hadn't been in his armor as much. He checked the message, and saw it was from Robin.

_In town. Looking to help. Where are you?_

_ Not tonight. Tomorrow. About to sleep. _He got a message back almost immediately.

_We were looking to stay with you tonight. Could stay with Batman instead._

_ We?_ A picture came in, showing that all of them, including Kitrina, had come to Gotham.

_I guess we could fit you in. I'm staying in the Hilton, top floor suite._

_We?_

_ Shit. I'll explain when you get here._ Twenty minutes later, Robin showed up on his doorstep, the Titans right behind him.

"You guys just wait out here for a minu-"

"No, no, you can come in. It's big enough. Just stick to the main area for now." They piled in, and he took Robin back into his room to talk.

"Who's this 'we'?"

"I've already contacted a number of people here, and I've been planning a lot of stuff. I've been with Selina almost all day, and she's crashing here for the night. I don't want Kitrina or Raven to walk in and think that we- well, you know."

"I understand. Look, I'll keep them distracted for a little while, you go in and tell her what's going on, lock the door and we can take care of it all in the morning." He nodded and waited for Robin to get the team's attention, then quietly half-snuck into Catwoman's room. She'd nearly fallen asleep, but was still awake enough to jump when he entered.

"What happened to nothing happening?" she asked, still trying to lead him on.

"Look, the Titans just showed up. Kitrina's here too. I'm gonna lock your door so that she doesn't get the wrong idea."

"Great. Kids. Thanks. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night." He turned the lock on the door and left, double checking the knob as he walked away. He approached the rest of the group, still looking on as Robin occupied time. He stood there awkwardly for a moment, waiting for him to finish. Cyborg turned around and noticed him first, and he looked happy to see him.

"Sup, man! How you been?"

"Better, you?"

"Great. Beat Scarecrow's ass and he's sitting in prison right about now."

"Good." Starfire turned to him and awkwardly greeted him.

"Hello, friend! It is good of you to lend us your lodgings for the night!" He smiled a little bit, her awkwardness easing his own. The others had realized he was there by now, and had turned to say hello.

"No problem, Star. Raven, Kitrina, Beast Boy, nice to see you all too." Beast Boy seemed to have lightened up since they'd last met; Raven was, as always, difficult to read and a little moody. Catgirl both looked like she had no interest in being there and had nothing but him in mind at the same time. "Look, I'd like to talk strategy tonight, but I'm wiped right now. One of the back rooms is off limits for now, we'll take care of that tomorrow, but there are two free ones. They've both got queen sized beds, so if you don't mind sharing with somebody you'll be fine, but otherwise the only place I've got is the couch."

"I don't really need to sleep," Cyborg noted. "So we only need to fit five people in."

"I can sleep on one of the couches," Robin said, volunteering himself.

"I'm either sleeping alone or not at all," Raven said in an almost passive-aggressive way.

"I'm good on the other couch," BB said, plopping down on the nearest one and laying back. He clearly was just as tired as Weaver was.

"I will gladly share a bed with Catgirl so that Raven may be alone as she requested."

"I'm fine with that."

"Alright, glad we got that sorted out. Thanks for coming, guys. We'll talk more tomorrow, promise." He retreated back into his room, but stopped when he realized somebody was following him. Kitrina was standing behind him, looking confused.

"Nightweaver," she said, breathing out the name like it was some forbidden phrase. "I... wh-..."

"You want to know why I did what I did." She nodded. He told her why, making sure to go into detail about what his logic had exactly been. "Look, I was drugged, my mind was foggy, I couldn't really think straight. I'm sorry, Kitrina. I really am. Are you okay?" She sat down on the end of his bed, still obviously confused.

"I think so. Are... are you?"

"I'm getting better. Look, go ahead and go to sleep. We can talk more tomorrow. I'm sure this will go better if we're not both tired as hell." He hugged her, then patted her back, politely telling her to leave the room. He laid down, closed his eyes, and rested.


	7. Chapter 7 Coming Together

Simon woke up to the sound of his alarm at 9:45. He shut it off quickly to prevent the others from waking up. He stepped outside and was surprised to find that Robin was still asleep. He was typically awake before the sun came up.

He grabbed two cups of coffee, poured plenty of sugar in, and unlocked Catwoman's door with his keycard. He set them down, closed the door, and shook her lightly to wake her. She jumped, but he calmed her down quickly and gave her the coffee.

"Lots of sugar?"

"I figured that's how you'd take it. I've got a knack for it."

"The kids awake?"

"They aren't kids, they're just a little younger than me. No, they aren't. Not yet, that is."

"I'll wake Kitrina up. She probably doesn't trust you much right now."

"We talked last night. She seems confused."

"I'll take care of it." She sipped at her coffee, brightening up with each drink.

"Leave the part about the White Death out. That's gonna spark some interest that I don't think we want."

"Agreed. Bruce would probably be pretty pissed about it himself."

"You know, I think we make a pretty good pair. We should team up more often."

"I'll consider it," she joked, smiling. "How are we going to handle all of this, other than what we already covered?"

"The others will probably understand that you just crashed here, I was just worrying about Kitrina's reaction to it. We've got to come up with a game plan, is all."

"Let's do it, then." She got out from under the covers and got dressed; Weaver waited politely, and the two walked out into the main room. Robin was awake now, stretching for the day to come.

"You sure you're alright without putting your mask on?" Simon asked before continuing.

"Yeah. Not really much of a mask, anyways. Hell, refer to me by name if you'd like. Not like I have much of a personal life to defend anymore." He slapped Beast Boy, who was drooling all over the couch. He sputtered back to life, looking around in a daze.

"Wake up. Where's Cy?"

"Uhh... Something about getting waffles downstairs."

"Shit. I'll be back. Selina, get Kitrina like we talked about." He rushed out of the door and hit the elevator. As soon as it hit the ground floor, he walked towards the continental breakfast. Cyborg was sitting at a table eating a worrisome amount of food.

"Hey rust bucket, c'mon. The others are waking up." He looked at him, stuffed a waffle into his mouth, and dumped his plate into the trash.

"About time." They got into the elevator, and Cyborg finally spoke his mind. "Look, man. We're all worried about you. Catgirl's been a mess since that whole incident. We want to know how you're doing."

"I saw a shrink the other day, it helped a bit. And then... Well, you'll see her in a minute."

"Her?"

"Nothing's happening, just got to talk some stuff out. Raven didn't tell you I was seeing a shrink?"

"Didn't say a word."

"Odd." The elevator doors opened and they went back into the suite. Beast Boy was still passed out, but everybody except for the two Cats had gathered around the table.

"There you are," Robin said, relieved to see him. "So, game plan?" Simon briefly went over their plan, explaining how they would take out the means of offense and defense, then take out Black Mask's monetary gains from Gotham in an effort to draw him out.

"So we're _trying _to piss off the guy that killed all three of you without hesitating to fuck you up in the head?" BB asked, debating the logic behind the plan.

"We're more prepared to take him off the map this time." Selina emerged from her room, Kitrina following close behind.

"Who's that?" Cyborg asked.

"That is the current holder of pretty much all the intel we've got on Black Mask."

"That doesn't give me a name." Simon gave her a look, silently asking her to introduce herself.

"Selina Kyle. Catwoman, for those of you who don't know." A moment of silence came over the group for a moment before BB spoke up again.

"So we're working with villains now?"

"She's not really a villain anymore. Never was, in my eyes. I'm siding with anybody that wants Sionis gone. You're not going to meet all of them, hopefully."

"Great," BB groaned.

"Point is, we hit his supply warehouses, he's got nowhere to collect his stuff, and then things get difficult. He'll lose millions."

"Sounds like a good reason for him to want you dead," Robin commented.

"I think we all know he doesn't need a good reason."

Nightweaver and Catwoman had both separated from the group and gone off on their own. They needed to scout out certain areas, and the entire group had split off into groups of two, save for Raven, who stayed to herself. They'd reached the tip of a crane overlooking a cluster of Black Mask's warehouses. Nightweaver used his armor's optics to zoom in on each one, taking pictures of them.

"Top of the ship in the port over there would be a good spot to take pictures next," Catwoman suggested. He nodded, took a few more pictures, then nodded his head in the direction of the ship and the two took off towards it, swinging from building to building until they reached their target. He started taking pictures, but felt bad for ignoring Selina.

"You mind answering a question for me?"

"Depends on the question."

"Alright, stop me if you don't want to answer, but how in the _hell _are you not a taken woman?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't see how you don't even have a real boyfriend. I mean, does Batman count?"

"We're nowhere close to together. We've had our flings, but I wouldn't even suggest that we're a couple. And I think that's just a matter of not having correct opportunity. You don't meet a lot of guys trying to stay hidden, you know?"

"I get that, just surprising. If I didn't know who you were and just saw you on the street, I'd probably hit on you. Just saying."

"Thanks. Nice to know that being a professional thief is natural guy-repellant."

"You know I didn't mean it like that. To be honest, I kinda feel like if I hit on you, you'd slit my throat in my sleep or something." She laughed at him, and his face flushed.

"So you're saying I _intimidate _you?"

"You are a _master_ at twisting my words!" He reduced the zoom on his visor, searching the skyline for more good viewpoints.

"I'm just saying, there's no shame in being intimidated by a woman."

"Never said there was. Just that it's not really like that. Less intimidating and more just eerily suspicious. I almost feel like you're _too _nice. Like it's all an act and you're going to fuck me over somehow." He looked over at her, and she was staring at him like he was a moron.

"Look, I've got problems with Sionis, you've got problems with Sionis, it only makes sense to work together. Anything else, I could understand the distrust."

"Sorry. I didn't mean that I didn't trust you. Just paranoid. You always hear all these stories about guys getting tricked into doing stupid shit by pretty girls, you know?"

"You're not very good at explaining yourself."

"Do you at least get some of the point?"

"You don't trust me because of my physical appearance?" she asked sarcastically.

"Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"Pity. You're cute when you're scrambling. And to be entirely honest, it might just be that I've not really been looking for a guy to be with. I kinda just figured it would happen when it would happen. Alright, my turn."

"Hm?"

"Why'd you ask?" He paused for a moment, trying to calculate his response.

"Just curious."

"You sure that's all you're curious about?"

"I already told you, I don't know my situation with those two."

"Doesn't mean you can't have an interest in somebody else. No shame in it."

"Fine, yes. Happy?"

"Yes what?" She was practically smiling ear to ear, torturing him as she was.

"I have entertained the idea that being with you could be fun. Satisfied yet?"

"Nope. I'll be satisfied when you go through with it."

"Oh, so I'm not just alone in this?"

"We're not playing this little game."

"Yes we are, and you know it."

"I have entertained the idea that being with you could be fun. Satisfied yet?"

"Yeah, I can deal with that."

"Easy to please, good to know."

"Better than high maintenance. Let's head out to another viewpoint, we've gotten all we c-" His communicator buzzed, and he saw that Robin had sent him a message.

_Meet back at hotel. Catgirl and Cyborg found something we all need to worry about._

_ Be there in a few. Left the door unlocked._

"What was that?"

"Need to head back to the hotel."

"Why?"

"Somebody found something. No idea what." Catwoman grabbed his head and pulled his helmet off, unlocking the armor joints as she pulled it off. She gave him a quick kiss, then handed him the helmet back.

"That never happened."

"Just saying, I have a button to take the facemask part off." He pressed the button on his forearm and the metal withdrew deeper inside of the helmet.

"That would've been nice to know." He slipped the helmet back on, locked it into place, and cracked his neck.

"Ready to go?"

"I guess."

They arrived at the hotel, and Nightweaver walked into the suite, Catwoman following closely behind him. Robin and the others were already inside, all looking worried.

"What is it?" Weaver asked, hoping it wasn't as bad as he imagined.

"Catgirl and Cyborg were exploring in the south side warehouses when... Well, they can explain better," Robin said, shifting attention to the other two. Kitrina stepped forward, Cyborg right behind her. She looked more composed than last time, oddly enough.

"We found a passageway into an underground substructure beneath the warehouse. Cyborg started scanning, and he found something that made us a little worried."

"Black Mask's got two fallback plans. One, he's been exposing already dangerous animals to different experiments. I couldn't tell exactly, but it seems like he's got a mutant army ready to launch. I doubt he could control them, but he could let them run wild."

"Number two?" Catwoman asked.

"Well, I figured that the radiation levels were normal for something like that, but as we continued exploring the substructure, they kept getting higher. I can't confirm for sure, but I can say with eighty percent certainty that he's got some kind of nuclear weapon." Weaver hung his head down, the stakes now much higher.

"Shit. We need to call in Batman on this." They all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Weaver and I can go and get Batma-" Catwoman tried to say, but was interrupted.

"No, I'll go alone. You help them with planning and scouting. I don't know when I'll be back, but we need to act fast."

Nightweaver jumped across the ditch separating the Batcave and the area outside. Nobody was inside, but he noticed that the walkway into Wayne Manor was open. Alfred must have been cleaning. He climbed up, knocking on the wall in an effort to announce himself. Bruce poked his head around a corner, book in hand.

"What are you doing here?"

"We've got problems."


	8. Chapter 8 Not What You Thought

Seventy two hours had passed since the discovery of Black Mask's fallback plan, and Simon hadn't calmed down a bit. They'd contacted the White Death, but the threat of nuclear destruction had put them all on edge; the Titans had opted to have their own rooms, leaving Nightweaver and Catwoman alone again. He was laying down on the couch, trying to come up with solutions to the problem. Selina had been pacing back and forth for almost an hour. They were both anxious.

"You got anything?" he asked, hoping she'd been able to come up with something.

"Nothing. Sorry." He sighed, the situation weighing heavily on him.

"Well, while we're alone, nothing's changed between us?"

"I don't think this is the best time."

"Well neither of us have been able to come up with anything, and the best ideas always come to me when I'm distracted."

"Fine. Well, for the record, I think that we should just go ahead and try not to let them notice. As long as you're sure you want to go through with this." He stood up and wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.

"Not at all. That's part of the thrill." He tried to kiss her, but she pulled away.

"Look, I like you and all, but I need some guarantee that you're not just gonna ditch me. Promise. I'm not asking for a promise that we're never going to break up. I know things don't work out sometimes, but I don't want to open up just to get hurt. So promise me that."

"As long as you do the same."

"Fine. I promise."

"I do too." A smile played across his face for a minute, then quickly vanished.

"What's wrong?"

"I think we're hitting Black Mask all wrong."

"Why?"

"Because what's the easiest way to get to somebody in power?"

"Walk into his office?"

"Exactly. And who gets to just walk into Black Mask's office?"

"A few people. Anybody that has to report to him. His secretary, his partners."

"Exactly."

"We can't put you in. He'll recognize you. Same for me, or Bruce, or Kitrina. Most of the Titans, too."

"Not Deadshot either. We were all in prison together briefly. Deathstroke's too famous. He'll recognize the voice alone."

"We need to figure out somebody we can trust that he won't be able to notice. Either way, good idea." She pecked him on the cheek, and he stopped for a moment.

"You know, you've got _really _pretty eyes." She smirked at him and laughed a little. "What?"

"You sound so awkward complimenting people. Stick to what you do." He'd meant it; her green eyes sparkled almost like emeralds when she was enjoying herself. He'd already decided that Selina Kyle was one of the most physically attractive women he'd ever met, and he wasn't surprised at all that she'd made her way into Batman's heart.

_Shit, how's Bruce gonna take this? I mean, he might already know, because he saw us the other night. Were they really together, though?_

"So, what exactly was between you and Bruce? I just want to know how we should approach this."

"Occasionally we'd end up getting together, but it was nothing much. I tried to get serious with him once and we didn't talk for a month, and we only started talking again because I told him we could just keep it casual like we had been."

"Sounds like he was scared."

"_Bruce? Scared?_ Of _what_, exactly?"

"Losing you."

"Are you trying to make me feel bad? Cause it might be working."

"Sorry. That's just why I was worried about him being hurt by it."

"It's Bruce. I've seen the man win a fight against twenty guys with a knife jabbed into his ribs and shards of glass in his knuckles. He gets hurt, he buries it and never talks about it again."

"I take it you've had some experience."

"I tried talking to him about his parents once. I pushed a little more than I should have."

"Why do you say that?"

"Let's just say that that's the only time I've ever seen him punch somebody and apologize for it."

"He hit you?"

"Yeah, but I'm not mad about it. Wasn't really then, either. If it affected him enough to drive him to beat the shit out of criminals for the rest of his life, I knew that if I pushed too far it might drive him over the edge. He started saying sorry literally the second he'd realized what he did. The man cried, Simon. I knew he'd just lost it for a second."

"Hard to remember sometimes that he's human."

"Snores like an elephant."

"Hey, let's get suited up and go scouting down where Kitrina and Cy were. I want to see exactly what's down there."

"Agreed." They were both ready in minutes and left, departing for southern Gotham.

"So, tell me, why did you get into what you did?" Weaver asked on the way there.

"Necessity. No money. Had to eat."

"Same."

"You were a thief?"

"Oh, nobody told you?" They both stopped on a rooftop for a moment, getting their bearings.

"No. Just said you'd been recruited."

"My parents died when I was younger and I had to start stealing to survive, or I'd get thrown into an orphanage. I didn't want to get caught."

"Same. At least, I think they died. I never knew my parents." He looked at her apologetically, understanding her pain as best he could.

"Sorry."

"Not like you had anything to do with it."

"I just mean that I feel bad for you." She backflipped off of the roof and he chased after her, the couple swinging through the city as the bright lights began fading and were replaced with flickering neon signs.

"Don't. I made it work, and yeah, some bad stuff happened, but I don't regret it. I stole. I killed. I did what I needed to do to live. You get that, right?"

"I do." They arrived at the hatch Catgirl and Cyborg had described days before.

"I've got better armor. Let me go in first," Nightweaver said, volunteering himself.

"I'm more quiet. If there's anybody in there, they won't notice me." She opened the hatch and climbed the ladder down before he could argue back. He watched as she flicked her goggles over her eyes and disappeared into the darkness. He stood around for several long, silent minutes before her head came back into view.

"Come on. Coast is clear." He dropped down the hatch, landing with a small splash. There were five men all ziptied together at the wrists and knocked out.

"Nice."

"Told you I was quiet." She nimbly walked along the center of a pipe, Weaver following behind. He did thermal scans on the walls, seeing various figures through them.

"Looks like we've got three in the next room. One's asleep, the other two are playing some card game. I'll get them."

"Show your stuff, kid." He walked forward as silently as he could, but the guards noticed him almost immediately. He shot the first to turn with his taser, then fired a grappling hook at the other. It hit him in the solar plexus, pushing him forward, before Nightweaver jerked him back viciously. His head snapped forward and he let him go, bouncing several times before rolling to a stop.

"Stay down if you don't want me to break every bone in your body." The three men stayed down on the ground, including the one who had been sleeping, having been awoken by his friend's impact on the ground.

"Nice one, Weaver." They continued down the tunnel, moving slowly and quietly, but keeping a relaxed pace.

"I didn't think our first date would be in an underground tunnel hunting for nukes, you?"

"I was more picturing sewers, to be honest, but this is good, too." They smiled at each other, but continued walking down the path. His communicator buzzed, and he blinked the feed onto his HUD. Robin showed up on his screen.

"Catwoman, watch for enemies. What do you need?"

"Where are you two?"

"Gathering intel on Roman's WMDs."

"Get finished ASAP. We-"

"We'll take as long as we need. There's an entire city at stake. Nightweaver out." He blinked Robin's feed away and tapped Catwoman on the small of her back, letting her know they were moving on.

"Somebody's a little feisty."

"Never liked him having control of me. Not a fan of being at somebody's beck and call."

"You'll _hate _me then!" She curled her whip around his neck and pulled him in, pressing the button that undid his facemask. She pressed her lips to his for a moment, but he stopped her before they could get into it.

"We need to do this first, Selina. I promise, we can have as much fun as you want once we're done." He kissed her quickly, then drew away from her and slid his facemask back into place. She looked disappointed, but her expression softened.

"You're right. Sorry."

"Don't get me wrong, _love _the enthusiasm. I'd love to break down and make out with you right now. There's just more at stake. Come on." They quickly arrived at a split in the tunnel. "Stick together, or split up?" She mulled it over in her head for a moment before pointing him down one tunnel and walking down the other. "Be careful. I don't want you to get hurt." Selina ignored him, vanishing into the darkness of the tunnels.

_Great. Passive aggressive bullshit._ He walked off, choosing to ignore the situation for now. His footsteps seemed infinitely louder in the enclosed space, echoing off of each and every wall. He felt horribly clumsy compared to the slyness of Catwoman.

_I should try and get Cyborg to help me make myself more quiet. I hate being this painfully obvious. _He reached a bend in the tunnel and pressed up against the corner, leaning his head out to scout the area. He saw a few armed men standing around a door, talking to somebody. He looked a little closer and-

_No. Not now. No! _Black Mask was standing there, cool as snow, talking to his henchmen and giving them a piece of his mind. He activated the long range hearing devices in his ears and listened in.

"You guys are _morons. _This shouldn't be that hard. How many times do I have to explain that _you are here for show_?! This door is wired to vaporize anything living that walks through it without the passcode. I don't need any more dead guys right now. Trouble shows up, you tell it that you're it's _bitch!_ You do as it _says!_ And you watch as the dumbass turns into a pile of _ash!_"

_Hold it, hold it, hold it, don't flip out, find your center, calm yourself... _Nightweaver was having to force himself to hold back from running out and attacking Sionis right there and then.

_Don't. He's got a nuke. Something like a nuke. He could blow up everything in Gotham with a push of a button, or something even worse. I can't ju-_

_ FUCK IT._ He charged headfirst out towards them, tackling the first he ran into to the ground and spinning back to one knee. He punched the second guard in the stomach, grabbed his gun, and flipped him, still holding onto the assault rifle. Nightweaver hesitated for a moment, gun in hand, then shot the two guards, watching as blood pooled from their bodies. He removed the clip from the guard's gun, popped the bullet in the chamber out, then threw it to the ground.

"Simon Weaver. Well shit, I didn't expect you this early." They began circling each other; Black Mask took his white suit jacket off and tossed it into the cleanest corner he could find, then started to roll up his sleeves.

"Simon Weaver is dead, Roman." Nightweaver cracked his neck, then his knuckles.

"So's Roman Sionis. Guess we've got something in common, kid."

"Fuck you, we've got nothing in common."

"Dead parents."

"You killed yours!"

"Still dead. You remind me a lot of a younger me. Just as unst-"

"FUCK YOU!" He threw a wild punch at him, but Black Mask easily dodged, ducking under it and elbowing him hard in the ribs. Weaver was too angry to focus on anything; even his willpower-based telekinesis was unusable. Black Mask took advantage of this, and had already planned the fight out. Nightweaver tried to spin and elbow his opponent in the head, but he was already on the other side of him, hitting him with a quick one-two punch to the jaw. He was dazed; no amount of armor on his head could stop the shaking that his brain just took. He stumbled and fell, and Black Mask stomped onto his forearm, hitting the button that removed his faceplate.

"How did y-" He was stopped as Sionis stomped on his face, shattering a few of his teeth. He could feel the blood beginning to gather in his mouth, barely able to get his hands up to defend himself, only able to reduce the pain and unable to stop it. He finally recovered and grabbed Roman's foot on a subsequent stomp, tossing it to the side and throwing it off balance. As he got up, he noticed he had picked up the empty assault rifle, and came at him with the stock. Black Mask smashed it into his face, another spurt of blood flying out of his mouth.

"You've pissed me off enough, kid. This is it." Nightweaver woke up at the thought of losing to his nemesis and surges of adrenaline shot through him. As Black Mask went to rifle butt him again, he pushed the gun to the side, grabbed Roman's arm, yanked him closer, and brought his elbow into his face at the same time. He dropped the gun and grabbed at his face, unable to properly clutch at his wound through the mask. Weaver clicked his facemask back into place and socked Roman in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and dropping him to the ground.

"You're right," he taunted, spitting out blood to the side. "This _is _it." Black Mask jumped to his feet and tackled Nightweaver, but was met with a taser to the ribs. It remarkably didn't phase him, and Sionis smashed Weaver's head into the wall, sparking millions of tiny stars in front of his eyes.

"Not today! You'll get what you deserve, punk!" He grabbed his suit jacket and ran off before Nightweaver could fully regain motor functions. He was barely able to get out his communicator and put out a distress signal before he passed out.


	9. Chapter 9 The Ass Kicking of a Lifetime

"Simon! Wake up! Simon!" He slowly stretched open his eyelids and saw Catwoman crouched in front of him. "Wake the hell up. I know you're alive in there."

"I'm... fine..." he muttered through broken teeth and torn lips.

"What the hell happened?"

"Mask..."

"Black Mask? He was here? He did this?" All he could do was nod, his breathing still ragged. "Where did he go?" She pressed the button on his arm, grimacing at the sight of his mouth.

"Don't know. Ran."

"Shit. Did you at least do a number on him?" He smiled, cracking some of the still-forming scabs on his lips.

"Hell yeah." She smirked a little, then stood.

"You know if you can walk?"

"Still woozy. Help?" He was trying to use as few words as possible; talking hurt.

"In a minute. Look around for your teeth. You look like a redneck." She bent over and gathered a few in her hand, and he checked around him and grabbed two. He took the ones she had grabbed from her and put them into his thigh pouch, then took her hand and stood up with her help. He leaned heavily against her, hardly able to stand from the last smash against the wall. "I already know how he did this to you. Black Mask is a master of mind games. He's got you under his finger so well that he just has to be mentioned for you to get pissed off." He stopped, looked at her with disgust, then pushed away from her and stumbled off.

"Screw you. He's got nothing on me."

"Bullshit, Simon. H-"

"Nightweaver."

"It doesn't matter! Until you can admit that, he's just going to do this again and again. Now come on." She wrapped his arm around her shoulder and half dragged him to the exit. She looked like she was debating how to get him up the ladder, but she brushed her off and climbed up himself, dragging himself onto the ground above and rolling onto his back. Selina came up after him and pulled him to his feet.

"Use your grappling hook. We're never going to make it there on foot. Black Mask is going to send somebody after you.

"Can't right now. Take it." He popped the glove off and slipped it onto her hand, putting her in control of getting them there.

"There's a reason I don't use these things." She pressed the manual launch button and the hook shot up at the building above them; she almost lost her grip, but was able to bring the two of them to the roof. "This isn't going to work. I'm calling Batman."

"Don't. He's got his own shit to worry about."

"You haven't seen how much blood you're drooling out. I've never seen somebody bleed that much from their mouth. Not even Batman." He looked down, vision still hazy, and saw that he'd bled all over the roof just from the few seconds they were there.

"Fine." He got the word out and almost collapsed, dropping to a knee.

"Bruce, we need help. It's Nightweaver. He's hurt. Bad. Bleeding a lot. I'll explain when you get here. Hurry." She crouched down to him and took his helmet off, trying to help calm him down. "Breathe. Think. Clear your head. You've probably got a serious concussion."

"Yeah... I'll be alright. Just need some time..." They heard the Batmobile pull onto the street below them, and within seconds the Bat himself was right there next to them.

"Catwoman, in the Batmobile. Nightweaver?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't bleed on the seats." He grabbed him and jumped off of the roof, using his cape to slow his descent. He helped him into the passenger seat of the armored car, then went around to the other side and got in.

"He'll be fine, he just needs to rest. Not sleep. Severe concussion. Just keep him awake for a few hours, but after that he'll need to stay off duty for a couple of days."

"Know a dentist?" Selina asked. Weaver reached into his pocket and presented his missing and broken teeth to Batman.

"I'll get Alfred to take care of that for you tomorrow. Bad idea to try for it now."

"I'm sorry, Simon. I should have stayed with you."

"Not your fault."

"Black Mask is tricky. He's made me contemplate giving up before. You should have waited for backup, but I can't blame you for going in alone. Good job, Nightweaver." Batman looked sympathetic as he put the Batmobile on autopilot to the hotel.

"Don't patronize me. I screwed up."

"I didn't say that you didn't. I don't think many people could have done differently. I wouldn't have."

"Simon, shut up." He listened, not particularly feeling like fighting anymore. They pulled up to the hotel within a few minutes and Batman helped them up to their floor.

"Get inside, keep him awake for three hours at least, then get some rest. We can move on without him for now."

"Thanks, Bruce, really."

"Just don't let him die." With that, Batman vanished, leaving them at the door. Catwoman pounded on the door, and Kitrina opened it. Selina pushed Simon into the door, and Kitrina gasped at the damage done to her ex's face.

"Get me some wet washcloths, now!" she asked, sending Kitrina off in search for them. Selina kissed him on the cheek, and he looked at her questioningly. "I felt bad. I stormed off like that and you got your ass kicked because I wasn't there. I'm sorry."

"This wasn't your fault."

"We'll talk about it when you're better." He attempted a smile, and she got the message. Kitrina returned with some rags, and Selina started to gently wipe the blood away from his face, careful not to get into any of the tears in his skin.

"He psyched me out..." he breathed out, barely letting the words escape his throat.

"What?" Kitrina asked, still piecing together what happened.

"I can't control myself around him. Need to be calm."

"You're right," Selina added in agreement. "If you'd been able to hold off until I got there, we could have beaten him then and there."

"I'll... do better." The two girls cleaned him up for almost an hour, doing their best to keep him awake. On the other side of town, something entirely different was going on.

Robin jumped down from a pipe high above Black Mask's warehouse, landing nimbly on a balcony above it. The villain had retreated into one of his buildings after his confrontation with Nightweaver; Batman had just called him and informed him of the details. He turned and looked around, noting that the door on the balcony was locked. It didn't rightly matter, he would get in it if he needed to regardless, but he was making note of everything he could as he always did. He peered into one of the windows on the door and, satisfied he could enter stealthily, picked the lock with a lockpick from his utility belt. The door creaked open quietly, and Robin slipped in, making sure to lock the door again behind him to prevent anybody noting something out of place.

He was in a small, dark room; the door on the other side was open, revealing a catwalk into a brightly lit storeroom.

_Going to be hard to sneak out onto that catwalk. Need to find another way. _He noted the air vent above him and knew his path immediately. He grabbed it and unscrewed the corners quickly, climbed into it, and pulled it shut behind him. It was cramped, but Robin was able to crawl around. He crawled and crawled and crawled, stopping when he started to hear voices. He took a small razor from his belt and cut a slit in the metal, peering down into the warehouse. Black Mask was sitting on a chair, visibly wounded.

_Must've been a rough fight. Too bad Sionis won._ He was being tended to by two of his men, and they were discussing current plans.

"So, did they find the 'nuke', boss?" one of them asked, making air quotes at "nuke".

"Oh yeah, they found it alright. Dumbasses don't even know what they're about to walk into."

"Chemo's gonna kick their asses."

"He's really too gullible," Black Mask noted, beginning a long, ego-fueled speech on how well he fooled it into becoming his weapon.

_Idiot._ Robin activated his communicator and sent a message out.

Nightweaver's communicator buzzed; so did Kitrina's right next to it. They both opened theirs at the same time, reading the message as fast as possible.

_In Black Mask's warehouse. He seems hurt and there's only a few. Advise? You two know him best._ They looked at each other and shook their heads wordlessly. Weaver started typing quickly, hoping to stop him quickly.

_Don't fight him alone. Last time we fought we were about equal. I don't want him hurting you too. Just put some surveillance equipment in there and get out. Catgirl agrees with me. We'll take him down together._

_ Alright. Heading back to the hotel. How are you holding up?_

_ Still bleeding. Glad the girls are here to clean me up._

_ So, I'm taking it you and Catwoman are getting along well?_

_ You're asking more than just that question, aren't you?_

_ Of course._

_ Not answering until you ask the real question._

_ You're together, aren't you?_

_ Yeah. Keep it quiet. We don't want the Bat to know._

_ He probably already knows. I know they were somewhat together, but he made it pretty clear that he wasn't serious about it. No need to be ashamed._

_ That, and I don't want her to end up just like Catgirl. A target Black Mask can use against me._

_ That, I understand. Be there in a minute._ Selina left the room, going to clean the blood off of her suit and change. Kitrina sat down next to him, and they spent a few long, awkward minutes in silence.

"You alright?" she asked, breaking the ice.

"Yeah. Just starting to scab over."

"I meant _you_."

"That, I'm not so sure about."

"Me either."

"You've been through a lot. I haven't exactly helped."

"It's alright. I know I haven't been good to you either. I've been thinking about what you said the other day, and I think I understand now."

"Understand what?"

"Why you did what you did. For a long while, I thought you'd said my name because you wanted me to die instead of Raven. I would've been fine if it had been something like a relationship, but that was _life or death_, and it hurt a hell of a lot more hearing you say my name. I'm not going to try and get back together with you, Simon. I don't know how you feel about anything, and I don't know if I'm ready to even try right now. I know this sounds cliche, but... can we still be friends?" He smiled, scabs cracking as he did.

"Yeah. Glad we're past that." Selina came out of her room on cue, back in her normal clothes, throwing a bag over her shoulder.

"Looks like I'll be staying here a little longer than I thought, so I'm gonna run home and grab some stuff. Be back soon." She walked out of the door, leaving Kitrina and Simon alone.

"I'm gonna go get this armor off." He stood up, groaning as his broken ribs complained.

_Didn't feel that before. Must've been adrenaline. _He walked into his room, and popped the chestplate out of place. As he tried to lift it off over his head, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to get it over his face without hurting himself.

"Kitrina?" he half-yelled, hoping she could help get it off of him more gently. She peeked around the corner, not coming into full view. "Can't get this off without hurting myself. Help?" She obliged and came over, helping guide it over his head and away from his mouth. They stopped for a moment, faces inches away from each other, but he pulled back.

"I'm not trying to do anything with you, I can't," he said, sitting down on his bed.

"You're right. I just said I wasn't going to do this."

"Yeah, that."

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

"What's your reason? Don't lie to me. I can take it."

"I'm with Selina. That's why I can't."

"I had figured you two had something going on, but I didn't expect it to be serious."

"It is. We just get along really well."

"We did, too."

"You said you weren't going to do this."

"I know I did. Sometimes you're wrong." She kissed him, half forcing herself onto him. He leaned back and pushed her off, trying to remove himself from the situation.

"Kitrina, I can't. I want to try to do this _right_ with Selina. Not like I did with you and Rae, where it was a jumbled mess of confusion and indecisiveness." She stopped and looked at him, realizing that he really meant it.

"Alright. Alright. Look, can I just get one quick kiss? For old time's sake?"

"That sounds like a way to blackmail me."

"Swear I won't. I just... I miss you sometimes. At least promise me if it doesn't work with Selina, we can try again?"

"As long as "it not working" doesn't involve you wrecking our relationship somehow."

"You don't trust me, do you?"

"I don't trust many people anymore."

"I'm not going to try to kill your relationship. I'm glad you're happy right now."

"One kiss. That's it. And if it doesn't work out, then we can try again. I was happy when I was with you, too." She leaned forward into an awkward kiss, and he broke it off quickly. She smiled, glad for the development.

"Thanks. I'm gonna go take a nap. Remember, stay awake." She left him alone, and he changed into a t-shirt and jeans, getting finished just as Selina walked back into the apartment. He left his room and greeted her with a kiss, surprising her.

"What was that about?"

"Just happy to see you, is all."

"Like I said, stick to what you normally do. Complimenting people doesn't suit you." She laid her bags down and flopped down on the couch, the visual embodiment of tired. Weaver followed suit and curled up next to her, and they both passed out then and there.


	10. Chapter 10 The Contract

Simon woke up feeling a lot better than he had the night before. He'd wrapped his arms around Selina at some time during the night, embracing her in sleep. He let go of her and sat up; she followed suit seconds later, surprising him.

"Been awake for a few minutes. Didn't want to disturb you," she explained.

"Sure." He got up and stretched, then got up and started making coffee. She left and went to his bedroom, leaving him alone.

_Did Kitrina spend the night here? She said she was just taking a nap. Should check on her. Need to talk to Cy about making a better suit. Might buy into the whole spandex deal. _He laughed to himself, then poured three different cups of coffee just in case and started drinking from his. Selina came back and started drinking hers, leaning against the counter next to him.

"Kitrina still here?" she asked casually.

"No idea. I'll check." He walked to the spare room and opened it. Catgirl was still passed out in the bed. He shook her shoulder and her eyes shot open. "Calm down. Just waking you up, it's about time." She shook her head almost violently, seemingly dazed. "Coffee in the main room." Selina poked her head in the door, a look of alarm on her face.

"You communicator's got a distress signal from Robin on it."

"Shit, he did say he was going to come here. Never made it. Let's go."

Minutes later, all three of them were suited up. Catwoman reunited with her sidekick temporarily and went to get help and search his last known location. Weaver had a hunch he knew where he was and returned to the tunnel he'd gotten beaten in. He stepped in as quietly as possible, cursing his heavy footsteps again as he did so. To his surprise, there was nobody in the tunnel; the massive blast door that had previously been closed was now open, however.

He stepped cautiously into the room, flooded a deep red by the emergency lights. It opened into a long staircase, leading him down. He could hear yelling downstairs, and almost jumped down the stairs to get towards it. He made no attempt at stealth walking into the room at the bottom. Robin was handcuffed and turned away from him, stuck on his knees in front of Black Mask. There was what looked like a massive tube of green, bubbly acid covering the rear wall.

"You can't do this!" Robin yelled.

"Obviously I can. And there's nothing you or Nightweaver here can do." Robin turned his head and saw Weaver.

"RUN! It's Chemo!" The tube shrunk and shrunk until he realized it was a humanoid being _made _of the liquid; eventually, it reached a slightly more manageable size of about eight feet. There were caps at the end of each limb, and a small focal point serving as the head.

"Have fun, kids." Black Mask walked right past Weaver, who could only watch as he went past.

"Robin, have you fought this thing before?"

"No, but I've fought something like it. You go after Black Mask, I'll take it out. Just get me uncuffed!" Weaver grabbed the chain on the cuffs and twisted, breaking it in two. "Go!" Weaver ran up the stairs, accessing his communicator on screen at the same time.

"Catwoman, Catgirl, Black Mask is here. Robin's fighting Chemo, I'm going after him. I'm just leaving the tunnel right now. Meet up with me as fast as you can, I don't want another repeat." He climbed out of the tunnel and was met with a manhole cover to the face. His back cracked against the edge of the hole that served as the entrance and he fell back down the ladder.

"You NEVER learn! Ha!" Black Mask walked away, and Nightweaver was able enough to shoot a grappling hook up at the exit and pull himself up and out. He was just able to watch a green cheetah tackle his rival to the ground and smiled.

_So THIS is why you work with a team! _Black Mask kicked and punched at Beast Boy, and just as he got himself free, a green bolt shot through his stomach. It resealed itself immediately, and Nightweaver stopped for a moment.

"Shit. That's not Black Mask, that's Clayface! He's already gone!" Raven appeared in front of him, grabbed him, and next thing he knew, they were on top of a building.

"Where are Catgirl and Catwoman?" she demanded.

"Last I knew they were scouting where Robin had been, why?"

"We can't get a hold of either of them. We got here and didn't see them and got worried." She grabbed him again and as the black energy dissipated, his jaw dropped. Black Mask's warehouse was in shambles, a large crater in the center, the walls barely standing. There were three figures fighting on the roof.

"Take me there. You need to help the other Titans against Clayface."

"No. We do this together." They were on the roof in seconds, and Nightweaver greeted the true Black Mask with a knee to the jaw. He fell back and the fight stopped for a moment as he surveyed the newcomers.

"Please. I've killed three of the four of you already." He kicked Catgirl in the head, knocking her down and starting the fight again. Raven tried to pick him up, but he pulled a gun on her and shot her in the thigh. She didn't have time to react and block the bullet, but Nightweaver was able to grab the gun and wrestle it from his hand before he could do a follow up shot. The two collapsed to the ground, trying to gain control of the gun.

_I get this pistol, I'm shooting this fucker._ Black Mask kicked him in the gut, sending him flying off and onto his back, but Catwoman entered the fight and kicked the gun away from both of them. Black Mask grabbed her leg as she did so and dragged her chest first onto the ground and put her in a chokehold. Catgirl had recovered by now and pried his arm from around her mentor's throat, but only succeeded in getting backhanded. Weaver took a moment away from the fight to check on Raven; she was bleeding badly.

"You alright?"

"Just a bullet wound, nothing major," she quipped viciously.

"Get out of here. I'll talk to you later, okay?" She nodded and crawled away behind cover, letting him focus on the fight. Black Mask had gotten on top of Catgirl and was choking her, Catwoman having been tied up with her own whip. He grabbed him by the back and forced him to stand, grabbed onto his shoulders, then jumped and tucked his knees in, dropping the crime lord's spine directly onto his kneecaps. He shouted out in pain and rolled off of him, and Nightweaver let him writhe and began walking towards the gun he'd dropped before. He picked it up and walked back to Black Mask, who had finally gotten back to his feet and was rubbing his back. Nightweaver pistol whipped him in the neck, knocking him on his ass.

"You're done." He leveled the gun to his head, but just before he could pull the trigger, it fell apart. He looked to his left and saw Raven holding a shaking hand out. "What the _fuck_, Rae?"

"You'd be no better than him!"

"I don't _care_!" He grabbed Sionis by the throat and started smashing his head onto the roof, then dragged him to the edge of the crater. He shot one grappling hook at him, letting it stay loose, and dropped him into the building, then ripped him back up to the roof, carrying him in a full arc in the air above him. He slammed into the roof hard enough to crash through to the next floor. He pulled Black Mask back to his level and dropped his nearly unconscious body.

"Wake up." He shot two tasers into each side of his body, and he writhed with electricity. Black Mask rolled over onto his stomach and tried to crawl away, but Nightweaver dropped onto his back and grabbed Roman's head.

"This is it, Roman. Any last words?"

"Fuck you." He went to snap his neck, but a figure yanked his hands away and threw him to the ground. The White Death stood there with a sword in its hand.

"You paid _me _to kill him. _I will kill him._"

"God damn it!" He tried to punch the assassin in the face, but it dodged and hit him with the hilt of it's sword.

"Don't try to fight me. We're on the same team."

"You just stopped me from killing him!"

"Because you were in the way of my directive." Black Mask had gotten up, but was immediately attacked by Catwoman. She kicked him in the jaw, sending him back down to the ground, but he rolled off of the edge of the building before she could hit him again, leaving Nightweaver and the White Death face to face alone.

"Look, I don't care who kills him, just as long as he ends up dead. If you wouldn't mind, we need to kill him. Now."

"You stay here. I will kill him." The assassin front flipped off of the building, and Nightweaver decided to check on his allies. Catgirl was coughing, but seemed alright. He searched around the building, but couldn't find Raven.

The White Death sliced at Black Mask's arm, cutting a large swath along his forearm. He was stumbling away, trying to regain his footing while simultaneously trying to dodge the katana that the assassin was using.

"I wouldn't want this to be too easy." It sheathed the blade and pulled a knife out, stabbing it deep into his left bicep. Black Mask shouted again and tore away, the knife staying in his arm. He yanked it out, holding the Bowie in his own defense.

"Leave me the fuck alone, you psychopath!"

"I have a contract on you, sir. I'm sorr-" White Death was stopped mid-sentence as Batman swooped in and kicked it, knocking it over.

"Get out of here, Roman. I'm letting you off easy. Go!" The assassin roundhouse kicked him while he was paying attention to Black Mask, knocking the Dark Knight down. It threw a smoke bomb down and vanished before he could recover.

"Damn it."

Nightweaver had found Raven, bleeding heavily from her wound.

"Rae, we need to get you to a hospital. You can't heal yourself."

"I can't teleport right now... I need you to carry me there."

"We're only a block away. Can you stand at all?"

"I think." She wrapped her arms around his waist and he started to swing towards the hospital, taking care not to land too roughly. He landed there in a few minutes and walked her inside, giving her to a nurse. He turned around to a right hook from Batman that dropped him to the linoleum.

"An assassin? I told you to be careful. You should have listened."

"I get the 'no killing' part, but what the hell was that for?"

"The White Death. Nobody's ever heard of it. You know why?"

"No?"

"The White Death _kills it's employer once it's done._ You signed a contract for two targets. Roman Sionis and Simon Weaver." The reality of the situation hit him. "You've got one chance."

"That is?"

"I'm not saving you on this one. I warned you. I'm not letting Robin or the other Titans help either. They could die. I can't control Catwoman, she does what she wants. That means you've got two true allies, because I'm sure the other villains could care less."

"And that is?"

"The other guy in the contract."

"No. I'd rather die."

"No, you wouldn't. The only way I see you surviving this is by teaming up with him. Deathstroke, Catwoman, Red Hood, Black Mask, _maybe _Deadshot. That's all you've reliably got. And I can't guarantee Red Hood either. You need his help."

_He's right. I don't have a choice here. _He got up and dropped his head, not wanting to do what he knew he had to do.

"You're right. Can you get me into contact with him?" He snatched Nightweaver's communicator from his belt, pressed some buttons, then handed it back to him. It was already calling an unknown contact. He stepped outside, sighing.

"Who the hell is this? I'M NOT IN THE MOOD RIGHT NOW!"

"It's Nightweaver. We need to talk."

"Oh Jesus, what?"

"That assassin is apparently after both of us."

"I don't believe you. Have a nice day."

"Wait! There's no other way for us to survive. We need to take it out before it kills us. I'd let it kill you, but it's gonna come after me, too. I don't want to die, you don't want to die, we have to help each other. Trust me, I hate it just as much as you do. It makes me sick to think about standing next to you and not trying to kill you. But if I'm going to live to finish you off, we have to help each other. There's no other way." There was a moment of silence, then a sigh from the other end.

"We meet in Crime Alley. I'm going to bring ten of my guys. You bring five of yours. We talk about it then. Tonight, midnight. You double cross me, I'll have your head hanging above my desk."

"Alright. I'll see you then." He ended the call, then rushed to where he had left Raven. A nurse directed him into a room where a doctor was pulling the bullet out of her leg. She looked up at him just as the doctor jerked the piece of lead out of her thigh, causing her to wince in pain. He grabbed her hand and she squeezed hard until it subsided.

"You can't be in here right now, sir. You can wait outside," the doctor said, looking at him almost angrily.

"Just give me a minute. Rae, you need to leave the city. It's about to turn into a full scale war, and I don't want you to get hurt more." She shook her head, and his heart dropped.

"If you're staying, then I am. I'm not leaving you to do this alone."

"Bats won't let you stay."

"He has no power over me. I'll do what I want."

"_I_ won't let you stay."

"Ditto. I'm staying, Weaver. You can explain the situation to me later, but for now, I need you to leave so he can finish fixing me up."

"Yes, please, leave," the doctor impatiently added.

"Fine. I'll talk to you then. But you _aren't _staying." He left, trying to figure out how exactly things were going to work out.


	11. Chapter 11 Draft

Nightweaver popped his helmet off as the elevator to his hotel suite began to rise. Getting Raven to leave hadn't gone well, and he needed to talk to the others. He came out into the hallway as it stopped and popped his door open; Catgirl, Catwoman, Cyborg, and Robin were all waiting for him inside.

"Not you guys, too."

"Raven told us what you told her, and we're with you," Robin explained, and Simon buried his face in his hands.

"I don't want you guys to help. It's too dangerous. I don-"

"Simon, _shut up_. You can drop the tough guy act. You need help, we're helping," Kitrina interrupted. He was offput by her aggressiveness, but continued on.

"Look, I've already got plans for this. I'm going to get Red Hood, Deathstroke, and some other villains. Nobody will miss us if we go down."

"You're _wrong_," Cyborg said flatly.

"_We _would miss you," Selina stated, finishing his thought.

"Touching, really, but _no_."

"You can't get rid of me, no matter what you try to do," Catwoman added, solidifying her spot in his lineup. He had no leverage over her.

"The only person that could stop me is Batman, and he'd have to do that by force." Robin was staying.

"I'm with you, 'nuff said," Cyborg said, seeming more dark than usual.

"It's not like I haven't died for you before, Simon." He felt a pang of guilt, but pushed it aside.

"I don't want you hurting yourselves to save me. I brought myself into this. I either bring myself out, or I don't come out at all. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you got hurt saving me. I can barely live with myself after what happened last time."

"I don't care. I'm staying in this."

"We'd have to work with Black Mask." All four of them immediately lost their momentum in the argument. "Look, just go. I'll think about it, but I don't want to hurt any of you." Three of them shuffled awkwardly out, but Catwoman stayed behind.

"You too, Selina. I need to be alone right now." She shook her head.

"No, you don't. From what I know about you, you do stupid things when you're left alone. I'm staying here. And I don't care what you do with the others, or if we have to work with that _asshole_, I'm behind you all the way."

"No." She slapped him, leaving a red mark across his face.

"I don't let Bruce tell me what to do, you aren't going to either." They eyed each other carefully for a moment, and he relented.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't try to stop you." She smiled awkwardly, even though he was still glaring at her.

"Sorry. I just get a little..."

"Passionate?"

"Sure."

"It's alright."

"Go change into some normal clothes. We're going out tonight."

"Where?"

"I'll take care of it. Just go."

Selina slid into her seat, Simon following, as they prepared to watch a movie.

"Any particular reason we're watching _Les Miserables_?" he asked almost angrily.

"Other than that it's in this specific theater, no."

"What's so special about this theater?" Somebody sat next to him, and he snapped to look at them. Red X was sitting next to him, out of costume.

"What are _you _doing here?"

"She asked me to come talk to you." He eyed Selina, who pouted and pointed him back in the other direction.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but I think we should stop being enemies. We were a good pair, back in the day. I'm not even going to ask for Kitrina back. I was thinking about what you said, and you were right. I'd been grasping at strings." Weaver stewed it over, then nodded.

"Fine. What do you have in mind?"

"What do you need me to do?"

"Give me your contact information, and I'll tell you when we need you." He pulled a card out and tossed it onto Weaver's lap.

"Talk to you then, I guess." He got up and left, leaving the two alone again. He looked at her, half irritated, half pleased.

"You really want to watch this? I don't like the French anyways," she asked.

"No, not really." They got up and left the theater, standing outside as it started to drizzle.

"It's always raining in this damned city." She sat down on the curb, and he sat next to her.

"You don't like Gotham?"

"It's hard to explain. I love Gotham, just _because it's Gotham,_ but I hate so many things about it."

"Why do you still stay here?"

"Born and raised here. Hell, the city itself raised me anyways. I feel like it would be wrong. Like abandoning your parents in their time of need."

"I guess I can understand. I'm glad you stayed, to be honest," Weaver said, looking away out of embarrassment.

"What's this? Verbal affection?" She stood up and offered a hand, and the two walked hand-in-hand back to the hotel. They stood silently in the lobby, patiently waiting on the elevator to arrive.

"So, not that I'm being impatient, but have you made any plans regarding the manor?" she asked, leaning on him lightly.

"Soon. Let's just get upstairs first." The elevator opened, and as soon as he stepped in, she cornered him and kissed him. They embraced for what felt like an hour, and when she finally pulled away, he was almost out of breath. "What was that for?"

"Felt like you deserved it. Don't argue against it, idiot!" The door dinged as they reached their floor, and the couple walked back into the suite. Raven was lying on his couch, her thigh heavily bandaged, having seemingly passed out. He put a finger to his lips, telling Selina to be quiet and not wake her, and led her into the back room.

"You want to see what I've done?" he whispered very carefully. She lifted an eyebrow inquisitively, and he had to resist the urge to laugh. "Get suited up and we'll go." She seemed almost giddy as she rushed to change. He grabbed his armor suit out of his duffel bag and put it on quickly, then quietly left and waited for Catwoman. She was ready in seconds, and the two exited into the hall and climbed onto the roof.

"Where is it?" she asked excitedly.

"North of the main city. I think you're going to like it." He grabbed her by the waist and jumped off of the building, then shot out his grappling hook. They swung across the city, and when he reached the end of the towers and skyscrapers, he set her down gently and started walking.

"How far?"

"Not very. Just over this hill."

"Well come on, then!" She ran up the hill and he followed, hoping that the construction crew had gotten as much done as they'd said they did.

_I almost don't want to say this but... do I love her? I shouldn't be jumping at this. If I overthink it, I'll ruin everything. But we're the same and opposites in so many ways. I've been able to open up to her, and that's a lot to me. Just focus on the moment. I'm happy that she seems to be happy._ She'd reached the top of the hill by then and was just staring in awe. He approached her from behind and saw why she was so struck.

Kyle Manor was five stories tall; the first and second floors were complete, but the third, fourth, and fifth were still just skeletons of what they would be. It was replicated classic Gothamite architecture, complete with gargoyles and all. She didn't know what to say. An alarm on his HUD told him it was eleven thirty.

"Shit, we need to go. Meeting with Black Mask, Crime Alley."

"Oh, shit!" Raven appeared in front of them, and within seconds, they were both back in the hotel.

"Thanks for not telling me you were here," she quipped. Weaver couldn't tell if she was being serious or not, he was just worried about getting to Crime Alley.

"I'm supposed to have five people, but I'm not going to bring the other Titans. I can't risk it."

"Still coming," they both chimed in.

"That's two. I'll make some calls."

Twenty minutes later, the trio had arrived in Crime Alley, waiting on their three allies. Red Hood stalked up behind them, his steps silent.

"Great, that's three. Good to see you." He brushed some dust off of his leather jacket and cracked his neck in response. "Still moody. Perfect."

"Not happy we're working with this little shit. Just be glad I'm helping you."

"I am. Thanks. Seriously." Catwoman and Raven ignored him; they didn't seem to enjoy his presence very much, even if they were forced to work with him.

"Who are the last two?" he asked impatiently.

"They'll be here."

"Just answer the damn question, Weaver."

"They'll be here. Just wait." A plane went overhead, and Nightweaver smiled.

"Incoming." A parachute flared open, and a man landed on one knee, peeling the backpack off and dusting himself off. Deadshot cocked his wrist guns and extended a hand towards Nightweaver.

"Long time no see."

"Too long." They were interrupted by Black Mask's appearance; he had ten of his men following, each of them carrying a weapon of some sort. They walked up to Weaver's group as a pack, and Black Mask was eyeing each of them carefully.

"I said five. You've got four."

"Just wait," Nightweaver said, trying to keep his words short; just seeing Black Mask and not punching him was making him feel sick to his stomach, and it was all he could do to not throw up on the spot.

"Five, you little shithead. All you needed to do was get five people, and you couldn't even do that." Weaver stayed silent, desperately fighting the urge to hit him. Just before Black Mask could say anything else, a shadowy figure appeared on a rooftop behind Weaver's team.

"That your fifth, or did we all just get lured into a trap?" Weaver turned around and instantly recognized who it was, but said nothing. Black Mask's mean all pointed their guns up at the figure; Raven discreetly broke all of them, from bending the pins to dislodging the magazines slightly. He heard Catwoman's claws slip out of her gloves with a _schlick_, and he tensed his own muscles; he knew that the figure wasn't hostile, but he didn't know how Black Mask would react. He heard Red Hood crack his knuckles, and everything sat in silence for a moment. The silhouette finally moved, jumping off of the building and slamming into the ground in front of them in a low crouch, black cape covering his body.

Red X stood up, easing the tension.

"We're all here. We need to leave, now. This is literally asking for the White Death to come and kill us all," Nightweaver said, having already realized this was the perfect trap.

"He's right," Black Mask said, easing some of the tension. "Between all of us, we should be able to kill this thing, but we need to plan this first. I've got proof you're in this."

"I'll contact you in the morning." The words stung in his mouth, and he almost regretted saying them immediately. He shot a grappling hook at a building overhead and climbed to the top, coming face to face with the White Death.

"You were watching."

"Yes."

"And you aren't going to just kill me?"

"No. You have found the terms of my contract, but the contract still stands. Black Mask must die first."

"You know that I object to this, correct?"

"They always do, but it is necessary to my success in future contracts."

"No, no. That's not why. You're _protecting _something. I'm going to find out what it is." He walked past the assassin and shot another line out, leaving it confused and trying to figure out what it's next step would be.


	12. Chapter 12 Nothing Good

Simon stretched out as he woke up, Selina still wrapped around his stomach and sleeping quietly. He smiled to himself, trying to keep his mind off of having to team with Black Mask.

_I've got a beautiful girl in bed with me, I'm at least an acquaintance with Batman, and I'm a Titan. One of my best friends is the daughter of one of the most powerful demons of all time, if that can be counted as a good thing. All things accounted for, I think I've lived a pretty good life._

_ The one worry creeping into my mind is if I should stay with Selina. She's a great woman, but I'm not sure if we're right. I promised her I'd keep this on for a while, though, and I have no intentions of breaking that promise. Lucky me._ He leaned his head down and kissed her on the forehead, then slowly withdrew from her.

_Kitrina should still be in the guest room. Raven's downstairs in her room resting up as agreed upon. The other Titans should all be-_

"I bring the greetings of a new day, friend!"

_Oh dear sweet Jesus._ "Morning, Star. What are you doing here so early?"

"I did not mean to offend, I simply woke up at a far earlier time than I had intended to and did not want to be alone for so long."

"And you knew I woke up early so you came here. But so does Robin, so why...? Not that I mind, just wondering."

"Robin... does not seem to be very happy with me lately." Her body language changed dramatically; her shoulders drooped, and he could tell he'd just accidentally poked a wound.

"Come here," he said gently, guiding her down to the couch. "What's up with you two?"

"I am afraid that I do not know. He seems... he seems..."

"Distracted?"

"No no, I wish it were that simple. Why do Earth males always have to be so complicated?"

"We're not. We're just broken. So he's actually _angry_ at you?"

"He has been refusing to speak to me."

"When did this start?"

"When we came to this city, he began ignoring me."

"He's under a lot of pressure, Star. Maybe he just doesn't want to do something he'd regret. Give him some time, that's all I can say." She mulled it over for a moment in her head, then nodded in agreement.

"I believe I see what you mean. Thank you, friend Simon."

"Any time."

"Oh! I forgot to feed Silkie. Excuse me." She left, leaving him alone again.

_Do I just leave my door unlocked? How the hell are all these people getting in without me letting them in? Whatever. _He grabbed a mug and filled it about three fourths of the way with coffee, filled the rest with sugar, and mixed it up. Evidently he'd made some amount of noise, because Kitrina left her room moments later, still in her underwear.

"My, somebody's feeling modest today."

"Shut up. Coffee." She had a mug in her hands in moments, and the two were both leaning over the counter drinking.

"Sleep well?"

"Have I ever?"

"Point taken."

"So... how are you and Selina getting along?" He felt a pang of guilt, knowing that he was basically dangling himself in front of her when he didn't mean to.

"You don't want me to answer that question."

"You're right, I don't. But I still would like an answer."

"Fine. No real problems. To be honest," he said, dropping his voice to a low whisper to avoid being heard. "I've been having some doubts, I won't lie. I'm not so sure she's somebody I can stay with."

"I understand. You've always been indecisive."

"That was almost my middle name. Couldn't pick between that and Shaquille." She smirked, too tired to actually laugh.

"I miss you, Simon. I really do."

"I'm right here."

"I mean I miss _us._"

"It's not going to happen, Kitrina. At least not right now."

"I know, you've got a commitment to her."

"I miss us too, though." Her eyes brightened, her chocolate brown irises now glowing. "That doesn't mean I'm going to cheat on Selina."

"I wouldn't want you to. If you're willing to cheat on her, you're willing to cheat on anybody."

"True enough." A black portal opened in the floor, and Raven rose through it, her thigh still bandaged.

"Morning, Raven," Kitrina said almost cheerily.

"Yay, mornings."

"You're almost as bad as Bats. I don't think you know how to use doors properly."

"Funny," his deep voice announced from behind him. They all turned to see Batman standing there, having entered the room without their noticing.

"How'd you get in here so quietly?" Kitrina asked.

"You'd never believe. I used the door."

"Let's cut to the chase. Why are you here? You never show up without a reason," Simon pointed out, knowing Batman's M.O..

"I'm making sure you know exactly what you're doing."

"Something I don't want to be doing."

"You're endangering other people's lives."

"Some of them won't leave," he noted, glancing at Kitrina and Raven as he said so.

"I understand that, but you had an opportunity to take out the assassin last night. Why didn't you do so?"

"How do you know that?"

"Answer the question."

"Because I still want Black Mask dead. I'm not killing that thing until it kills Black Mask."

"How do you not see the _idiocy_ in this?"

"You call it idiocy, I call it revenge."

"You let an assassin that _admitted_ that you're next walk away. I can understand you wanting Black Mask dead, even if I don't agree with it. I won't stand by and let you do it, but I understand it. But do you have no sense of self preservation?"

"No, I guess I don't. Then again, neither do _you_."

"If something is going to kill me, I do something about it."

"But you still go out dressed up like this and fight people with superpowers every day. You and I are the same in that way, except your hunt is for crime in general, whereas mine is for one man."

"You've got a long way before you're _anything _like me." He left, and the trio noted that he _did_, in fact, use the door.

"Asshole." Simon leaned back over the counter and sipped from his coffee some more.

"You alright?" Raven asked.

"Fine."

"No, you aren't. You don't have to be a psychic to know that you're pissed," Kitrina interjected.

"Just _drop it_."

"Simon, for once, stop being such a prick! We're your friends. You can talk to us. You look up to Batman. I know you do. You can't even try to deny that, because I can sense it in you right now. I could sit here and tell you _exactly _how you're feeling about _anything _that's in your mind right now, but you'll get through it faster if you just _admit it_," Raven said angrily

"I feel like I fucked up! Happy?"

"That's better. Now try to relax a bit."

"Screw off. Get out, please. Before we get into a real fight."

"Sorry. We'll talk when you've calmed down. I'd say go back to the psychiatrist." She vanished before he could respond, and he just put his head in his hands. Kitrina tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he violently pushed her away.

"Leave me alone. I don't want to fight you either."

"You're stuck with me." She wrapped her arms around his ribs and hugged tight, but he didn't reciprocate at all; they stayed like that for a good long while, her trying to comfort him and him not accepting it.

Selina left their room in just a button up shirt and immediately noticed that Simon looked _pissed_.

"What's wrong, baby?" she asked, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Nothing." Kitrina looked up to her and just shook her head, signalling that she should just drop it.

"Come on." He ignored Selina and brushed Kitrina off, grabbed his jacket, and walked towards the door.

"Going out. Be back later." He slammed the door behind him and walked out onto the street, nearly missing the caped silhouette standing on a building adjacent to him, watching.

He walked past the psychiatrist's secretary and barged into her office; she was studying something on her computer and only began paying attention when she realized who it was.

"Ah, N. Nice to see you again."

"Sure. Need to let off steam."

"Lay down, then, please." He did as she asked, and she walked over to the chair in front of him.

"Fuck the anonymity. I'm Nightweaver. Let's just start with that."

"I had assumed so. What seems to be the problem?"

Catwoman and Catgirl both crawled through the bushes behind the building Simon had entered. Kitrina poked her head over the windowsill and saw that he was laying on a therapist's couch with a doctor sitting just off to the side.

"Here. You sure you want to do this?"

"It's my job." She extended a claw and cut a small hole in the window, letting the sound from inside escape more easily, and began to listen in.

"I woke up this morning feeling absolutely amazing. I was in bed with my girlfriend, one of my best friends in the room across the hall, life generally good."

"And what made things go south?"

"Batman showed up."

"Oh?"

"He started insulting me, basically, and he said I was just endangering others."

"From what I've heard, he always acts similarly to that. He's a brutally honest person."

"It's just painful because there are so many things leading up to this, and on top of that, I've come to respect Batman immensely."

"Tell me about the things leading up to this. Let's start with your girlfriend. Does this have anything to do with the other two girls you mentioned on your last visit?"

"It does, in a way."

"Might I ask who you're dating?"

"I feel like I shouldn't be using names here."

"I assure you, nothing you say leaves this room." He rubbed his forehead, then decided to trust her.

"I've been with Catwoman for about a week now. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it was hard for me to let somebody in after what happened with the other two."

"I understand. So where is the stress coming from?"

"Well, together, I feel like we're perfect, but sometimes it just doesn't feel _right_. And sometimes I still want one of the other two."

"I'm going to ask you a few questions about her, now. Do you feel in your heart that you have potential with Catwoman?" Selina tensed outside; she didn't know quite how to feel about what he was saying.

"I do. She's an amazing woman. That sounds stupid, but she's a good person. I mean, I'm not always sure how I feel about her, but I know that she's got my best interests at heart, and I think I have hers."

"You _think_?"

"I do what I think is good. I don't get very many opportunities to support her, but I try to."

"Okay, second question; are you ready to stay committed to her?"

"Unless there's a reason we break up, yes."

"Alright, then let me let you in on a little secret. People in relationships have doubts _all the time_. I've been married for fifteen years, and I can't say I've never thought about somebody else. I can't say that I've never thought about running off with another guy. But the thing is, I love my husband. Do you love Catwoman?" He struggled with the question in his head for a moment.

"I honestly think it's too early to say that. I wouldn't expect for her to be able to say that this early either. But when and if I do reach that point, I'll keep what you said in mind." He stood up and shook the psychiatrist's hand, only just realizing then he still didn't know her name. He ignored that simple fact and showed himself out politely, emerging back into the sunlight with his hood up.

"You alright, Selina?" Catgirl asked her mentor.

"Yeah. He's right. It's too early to say anything. But I do get what he's saying. Sometimes I wonder if I should be with him, seeing as he's younger than I am."

"Well, technically speaking, he _is _eighteen."

"I know, but I still feel like a cradle robber."

"You aren't much older."

"I'm twenty five. He's seven years younger than I am."

"There are plenty of couples with larger age gaps."

"That's beside the point. And I assume that by "one of the other ones", he means you?"

"I think so." Selina glared at her.

"Don't bullshit me. I know you." She sighed and relented.

"We talked. He wants to stay with you, but he did admit he still had feelings for me. I'm not trying to steal him from you."

"I wasn't saying you were. I just don't like when people lie to me." She got up and started to walk away, Catgirl in tow.

Simon sighed as he threw his jacket off, collapsing on the couch as he did so.

_Head's more clear now. That's good._

_ I'm going to stay with Selina. At least for now._


	13. Chapter 13 Kicking and Screaming

Catwoman and Catgirl barged in the door to the suite, causing Weaver to snap into action without realizing who it was. Selina caught his arm before he could throw the first punch and he eased up.

"We've got to talk," she said sternly, half dragging him back into the bedroom they shared. She pulled her mask back and the two stared awkwardly at each other for a moment.

"About?" he asked, the tension increasing.

"Kitrina. Look, I know I shouldn't have, but I-"

"Spied on my therapy session. You aren't as sneaky as you think."

"You aren't angry?"

"That won't help anything. So you heard that I've still got feelings for her, and I'm not going to lie, that's entirely true."

"So?"

"So that doesn't mean I'm going to let those feelings for her get in the way of the ones I have for you. I'm not going to ditch you for her, I'm not going to cheat, nothing is going to happen like that. The only time those feelings come into play is if something happens between us." She was silent for a moment, running it through her mind for a moment, and seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Simon, you're a great guy. I'm going to do this because you were honest. If you want to go for her, this is your chance, right now. No hard feelings, we're still friends, it's all good." He hung his head, deja vu surging back to him.

"Do I have to make this choice now? I'm _terrible _with choices."

"I know you are. Look at it this way. You're on a ledge, with a decent amount of money. Now, let's say you jump off the ledge. At the bottom, there might be more money, a little less money, the same amount, hell, even no money. Maybe you just hit the bottom and crash. Which do you take?"

"The one with more possibilities," he said almost out of impulse, realizing what he'd said nanoseconds later. She stopped him before he could say anything else, holding a finger to his lips.

"Thing is, there's a ladder back to that ledge in this case. It doesn't work out, I'll be here for you." He tried to smile, a stream of guilt still flowing through him.

"You're pretty damn good too, Selina. Thanks." He kissed her one last time, then started to snap his armor together. He rushed out into the main area of the suite and grabbed Catgirl by the hand, pulling her through the doorway and to the window.

"Grab on." She obeyed, confused as she was; in minutes, they were on top of the highest building in Gotham.

"What's this all about?" she asked, entirely unsure of the events that had unfolded.

"Sit down." They both sat on the edge of the building, staring out at the morning sun.

_This is odd. I thought I was happy before, but... I feel better now. Selina's great, but I think this is for the best._ Catgirl was still staring at him, trying to read his face. He pressed the release on his facemask and let out a deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Simon?"

"We came to a bit of an agreement."

"And that was?" He grabbed her hand and gripped it tightly, trying to think of what to say.

"I'm ready to try again if you are." It took her a moment to process it, and she leaned over and wrapped herself around his arm.

_This feels right. It finally feels right. _They laid back, happy to be back together.

The day slowly transitioned into night, and Nightweaver spent all day with Catgirl, delighted at the old-but-new-again feelings. It was interrupted when his communicator buzzed.

_White Death has been found. Easy opportunity to take it out. You in? ~ Robin_

_ Definitely. Be there soon._ He smirked to himself.

_I don't feel like murdering Black Mask anymore. Well shit. _He tapped Catgirl on the side; she'd fallen asleep half on top of him almost an hour ago.

"What is it?"

"Found the assassin. We're going to take it down. Black Mask can come later."

"Alright," she said groggily. They got up from their perch high above Gotham and jumped off hand-in-hand.

Robin roundhouse kicked at the assassin, narrowly missing it's head as it dodged underneath his boot. It straightened out and punched the Boy Wonder in the stomach, doubling him over. Nightweaver and Catgirl swept in just as this happened; he slammed a foot into its chest, knocking it over as Catgirl rolled to a standing position. The White Death drew its katana and slashed at his shins; Nightweaver easily jumped over it, but the assassin continued spinning with the swing and caught him in the head with the pommel. He fell to the ground as Catgirl leapt between them, grabbing the sword and tearing it from its gloved hands. Her claws caught one of the gloves and tore through them, revealing wiring. Robin stood and saw sparks shooting out of it and realized what their enemy truly was.

"Nightweaver! Tase it!" He did as Robin commanded and shot out both tasers, aiming for the hand as best he could; luckily for them, the robot's programming told it to try to counter. It grabbed a hold of both projectiles, allowing them to dig slightly into the exposed wires and overload the system. Sparks shot from its hand and it began to smoke slightly before all of its limbs locked into place and it fell over. The three of them got up, looking blankly at the statue-esque body.

"Seems kinda anticlimactic, doesn't it?" Weaver asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah."

"Wait!" Catgirl yelled, pointing at the robot's corpse; it's fingers were beginning to twitch.

"Should've seen it coming." Robin grabbed his staff and a bomb disc; he planted the disk on it's chest, took aim for a moment, then slammed his staff down onto the disc, shattering it into several pieces.

"Fools." All three heads snapped around to see another White Death standing not fifteen feet away from them. "You're just scratching the surface. Open it up and see for yourself." The second White Death vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving them to investigate. Robin shoved his staff into the broken chest cavity and pried it open, revealing a larger, middle-aged man wearing nothing but some sort of shock collar.

"Robin, get Batman. Kitrina, can you get that collar off him without hurting him?" She eyed it over for a moment, then shook her head.

"If you look at the seam, its clearly embedded in his skin. No way I'm getting it off of him here."

"Alright. Keep a lookout."

"No need. Enemies are already here." Black Mask and his cronies were on the approach, each of them armed with an assault rifle.

"You kill it?"

"Turns out there's more than one."

"Did you kill the _right one, _then?" Sionis asked through gritted teeth.

"No. Not yet." Nightweaver grabbed him with his left hand and put his right directly through his abdomen, his fist bursting through his back in a shower of blood.

"The fuck?!" one of his henchmen yelled, all of them backpedaling and aiming at him.

"Leave. Now. You'll live longer." The men all ran, some of them throwing down their weapons as they did.

"Simon... How?..."

"Suit can amplify strength when needed. Got sick of him." He put his right hand down as Roman Sionis' body slipped off, dropping to the ground with a loud _splat_. Robin was staring at him wide-eyed, not sure what to do.

"You realize you just screwed us, right? We needed him to fight off these White Death things."

"No, we don't. A bunch of thugs with assault rifles aren't going to save us. We can do better than them with our bare hands." Batman swooped in and quickly realized what was going on.

"Simon, out of the suit, _now._ Robin, collect the civilian."

"Out of the suit?"

"Out. You're incredibly unstable right now and I can't risk you doing anything stupid."

"So you want me out of the suit."

"I thought I made that clear."

"I'm not getting out of the suit."

"Then I'll _take _you out of it." Batman reached to his utility belt, but Weaver shot a grappling hook at the clasp and yanking it off. The Dark Knight growled at him, and the two stopped in a standoff. Robin and Catgirl just stood by, neither sure of which side to help. Batman took several slow steps towards Weaver and threw the first punch, hitting him square in the face. He recoiled from the hit and recovered quickly, hitting him in the stomach and bringing an elbow around into his face. Batman grabbed his elbow and brought to the ground, then shoved it behind his back and got on top of him.

"Stand down!"

"No!" Weaver bucked, throwing off his balance just long enough to get his knees under him and stand back up. He fell back onto his back, knocking Batman off of him and turning to punch him in the head. Satisfied, he tried to walk away, but the suit stopped responding to him entirely. He was still able to turn his head, and he saw Batman on one knee, holding an electronic jammer. He hadn't noticed that Wayne had landed directly next to his utility belt. Batman forced several fingers through the chestplate of his suit and tore it in two, ripping Weaver out of it and onto the ground. He grabbed a taser from Batman's belt before he could turn around and jammed it into his ribcage, sending him to the ground. He grabbed his now limp suit and tried to get in, but Kitrina grabbed his arm.

"Stop." He paused just long enough for Batman to get him in a headlock; his arms pressed against his throat, cutting off the air and choking him until he passed out.

Simon woke up handcuffed to a chair somewhere in Wayne Manor. It wasn't long before Bruce Wayne entered the room, dressed to the nines.

"Let me go."

"I'm considering it."

"Fine. What are your conditions?"

"Straight to negotiation, then. You stay here. Be my sidekick for a while."

"Why?"

"You're troubled. You need _help _controlling your anger. I'll forget that you just brutally murdered Black Mask if you at least really try and control yourself. You say yes, I get you dressed and we go to a company fundraiser. You say no, you get sedated and put into a cell in the cave."

"Why a fundraiser?"

"You lack a normal social life. Every hero needs some kind of normal life. Helps balance things out. I'll have some forgeries made that establish you as an inner city youth that I've taken in."

"I have as much of a social life as I can handle."

"Exactly. You'll learn to leave it at the door. You let yourself _constantly _think about Black Mask. That's how you could be sick of him, as you put it, despite having minimal contact with him recently."

"I don't want to, but I don't exactly have much of a choice, do I?"

"No," he said almost smugly, adjusting his wrist cuffs.

"Fine, but I don't want to go to this fundraiser."

"I can deal with that. Go find Alfred and talk to him. And before you get any ideas, you've got a chip in your skull that will alert me if you try to run, and there are self destruct protocols installed on your suit if the proper password isn't supplied."

"So even if I said no, you'd have me by the balls."

"Basically," Bruce said as he unlocked his cuffs. Simon could barely get up before he was out of the door. Alfred was in the room less than a minute later, leading him somewhere deep within the bowels of the mansion. They made it into a room filled with file cabinets and Alfred took a seat at a table. There was a single folder on the table, and Alfred pushed it towards him.

"Your new identity. You will be put into Gotham High, so as to more closely associate you with the public and help you with developing relationships with people." He grabbed it, but didn't open it.

"Do you think you could do me a favor?"

"That depends on what the favor is."

"I don't want to go into this alone. Could I call around to some of my friends and see if one of them will do it with me?"

"Certainly. I see no reason for Master Wayne to have issue, and a false identity is surprisingly easy to manufacture." He fished Simon's communicator out of his coat pocket and gave it to him.

"You kept it on you?"

"I had a hunch you'd want it." He flipped it open and called Kitrina, then stepped out of the room for some privacy.

"Simon?"

"Yeah. Look, it's a long story, but I'm getting forced to go to high school. I don't want to do this alone."

"No, Simon. I just got out of high school a year ago. I'm never going back. Never again." His heart dropped for a moment, but then what had just happened registered in his head.

"Screw you. No, no, _fuck you_. The shit we've been through for each other, and _this _is where you draw the line? Doing something you've already done that I'm nervous and scared about? Don't you think it would be a good idea for me to have somebody help me get through this shit? Go fuck yourself. I thought you were better than this. I guess I was wrong."

"Simon, I-" He shut the communicator before she could finish, then held his head against the wall for what seemed like an hour.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"Just give me a minute. That was... That was bad."

"This might be hard to believe, but Master Wayne has been through his fair share of heartbreak. I would like to advise you _not _to do what he does. It isn't healthy."

"Just shut it in and bottle it up?"

"He's a strong willed man, but he isn't stable. Find an outlet. You'll thank me later." Before Simon could respond, a portal opened in the floor and Raven appeared out of it.

"What's wrong? I've been trying to keep track of you since Batman knocked you out, but I just felt a huge wave of grief."

"It's Kitrina. Just leave it at that."

"Did you two already break up again?"

"Yeah. I'm done with her." He walked away, leaving Raven and Alfred alone.

"What happened, Alfred?"

"Master Weaver asked her to accompany him in his new alternate identity and she refused, from what I could tell."

"His new alternate identity?"

"Master Wayne has determined that it would be mentally healthy for him to have a civilian aspect to his life. He will be attending high school, starting in the eleventh grade."

"Sign me up. He needs somebody with him, it may as well be me."

"That's very kind of you, but are you sure that you'll be able to fit in?"

"I've been able to pass for a civilian before. Don't worry about me."

"I'll have your papers ready for you in the morning."

"Thank you. I'm going to go find him."

It didn't take Raven long to track Simon down, sulking in what he assumed would have ended up being his bedroom.

"You gonna be alright?" she asked, sitting down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah. I should have seen this coming."

"No, this isn't your fault. You can't control whether or not somebody else is a bad person." He didn't have anything to say back, and they just sat there for a few minutes in silence.

"I just can't believe she would refuse," he said, assuming Alfred had explained the situation.

"You aren't going to be alone. I'm coming with you."

"You wouldn't mind getting forced through school again?"

"I never went through school in the first place. We're going to be in the exact same boat."

"It means a lot to me."

"Don't worry about it. Just do me a favor and don't be down the whole time. We won't have much time until we start."

"Really, though, thank you. I owe you big time, Rae."

"To be honest, I probably wouldn't do this if you weren't doing it anyways, so we really need each other in this situation. Although I do find it particularly entertaining how scared you are of facing the public. You'll willingly go against an army of elite death robots, but god forbid you get kicked out of a clique."

"I'm just not exactly great in big social situations."

"That really is cute, you know."

"You're a great friend, Rae."

"You're the first person I was ever able to fully open up to. I don't try and take care of you, what kind of person does that make me? You are honestly my best friend, and if I treat my best friend like shit, then I deserve nothing more than to resign to a life of servitude under Trigon."

"You're the best friend I've got, too. I'm sorry if I don't always act like it. It's just that sometimes I get distracted from what really matters and I act like an ass. I never should have taken Kitrina over you. I can see that now."

"It's not too late, Weaver."

"Do you think we could start over? Write off all of my screwups? I know it's a lot to ask, but-"

"Don't worry about any of it." She smiled reassuringly at him just as Bruce stepped into the room, leaning on the doorframe.

"Alfred told me about your idea. I approve. I do _not _approve of you doing it behind my back. Make it the last time. Raven, you'll stay here from now on. Notify the Titans. And before it becomes an issue, yes, you can stay in the same room. I've been listening long enough to know where this is going. I wouldn't try and control that. You start school in two days. Make sure you're ready." He left, leaving the two of them alone again.

"Get to sleep. We'll go and grab some normal clothes tomorrow." He turned and kissed her on the forehead, then slipped under the blankets and passed out.


	14. Chapter 14 Drastic Changes

"I already hate this." Raven had dragged him into the mall for clothes shopping, and every second of it was practically torture. Thankfully, clothes shopping for men was easy; he got some jeans, a few pairs of business pants, T-shirts and polos, and that was all. It had come time for Raven to shop, and he felt incredibly awkward in the gothically themed store. Almost everybody that came in gave him odd looks, and understandably so; he was dressed different than them and seemingly just hanging out in front of the women's changing rooms. Raven finally emerged with no shirt on, just her bra and a pair of black jeans she had spotted.

"They look fine?" She did a 360 degree turn, but something caught his eye.

"Let me see your back again."

"Huh?" He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her slightly, revealing the tattoo on her back, a large, black raven with four eyes stretched out between her shoulderblades.

"When did you get this done?"

"During that little exile you had when you first got resurrected."

"It looks nice. Find a shirt."

"Getting protective?"

"That douchey-looking cashier is checking you out and I don't like it." She stifled a laugh, then vanished back into the dressing rooms.

Hours later, they finally left the mall; Alfred was there in minutes to pick them up, speeding off towards Wayne Manor.

"Master Wayne is trying to make this as painless as possible. You will have seven classes each day for an hour each; you will have five of these classes together, and two without each other. Do you know your cover identities?"

"Not very well yet."

"You were both orphans stuck in the system. Simon, your story is close to what actually happened in your life; Raven, we had to be a little creative with. Your mother was molested and became pregnant with you, but refused to have an abortion. Just before she was to give birth, your mother was hit by a truck from Ace Chemicals; the chemicals spilled, resulting in slight, benign mutations, such as your skin color. We have also explained the chakra on your forehead. It was given to you by an anger management counselor to help you control yourself. We aren't expecting you to follow a script, just act like believeable teenagers slightly younger than yourselves. We have you both listed as being sixteen and having your original birthdays. Simon, you are going to be Gregory Weaver. Raven, you are Rachel Roth. Can you remember all of this?"

"I think we can," she answered for him. "Right, Greg?" He smirked and wrapped an arm around her waist, missing the old jeweled belt that used to circle around it, now replaced with a thick leather one.

"Bruce Wayne found you both in similar situations and decided to take you in out of pity and in an attempt to give you good lives."

"Sounds good to me. Hey, could you drop us off a few blocks away? I want to have some alone time with Raven." She shot a look at him, trying to figure out what his intentions were, but he waved her off.

"Certainly. I understand this must be a drastic change, and things must be dealt with as they come up." A few minutes later, he rolled to a stop, and they started walking towards the mansion.

"So? What is it?"

"How do we play this? Do we let people know we're together?"

"Of course not. We wait a little bit."

"Why? I was figuring it would be an immediate yes or no."

"Well, there's always going to be somebody trying to screw the new girl."

"And that's a good thing to you?"

"No, you're just funny when you get overprotective."

"I just... I woke up last night and couldn't sleep, and I had a lot of time to think about _us_... I... This is hard for me to say all of a sudden, and I don't know why..."

"It's because you actually mean it this time."

"I did before too, though. That's the thing."

"You thought you did, but I can feel it, and it feels _different_."

"I think you may be right. Even if I can't say it now... you understand, right?"

"Of course I do." She kissed him, but kept it brief; they were coming up on Wayne Manor. Alfred was loading the last of the bags into the mansion, and Bruce was waiting for them outside.

"We headed out?" Weaver asked impatiently.

"No. You two aren't going out and fighting for at least a month. You need time to adjust. Then we add in our "unique" night activities." He didn't like it, but Weaver knew it was probably going to be the easiest way to do things.

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, as did the next. The morning came when they had to wake up early enough to get there on time. Alfred drove them to the school and walked them into the office and got them squared off. One of the principal's assistants walked them to class and pulled the teacher out to speak with them for a moment; she was immediately taken aback by Raven's appearance, but recovered just as quickly.

"Slight mutation that happened when my mom was still pregnant," she explained quickly. The assistant motioned for her to be quiet rudely, then spoke up.

"You'll need to tell the class to leave her alone about it. You know how they can be."

"I'll take care of that," Weaver interrupted. He gave her a look and grabbed her hand, and she nodded in agreement; it would be better for both of them if they came in together and made it clear they weren't going to take anybody's shit. The teacher, a tall, blonde woman with black glasses and green eyes, dismissed the principal's assistant and addressed them directly.

"Alright, sorry about that. People in the principal's office are always wound up tight. I'm Ms. Jennings, your English teacher. Most of the kids in this class aren't that bad, but there are a few of the jocks you'll have to watch out for. Unfortunately, they're all at the back, and the back is where the only seats are. I see you'll want to sit next to each other?"

"Yes," they both said in unison. She smiled at them, then stepped into the room.

"Class, we have two new students with us. I will warn you, one of them is slightly mutated, but please, don't treat her any differently." As if trying to distinguish himself as an ass, one of the aforementioned jocks decided to speak up.

"What kinda mutation? Like, big titties? Cause I'll treat her _so _differently." Some of them laughed, but most of the kids at the front of the class just stayed respectfully silent.

"Jack, that's _incredibly _inappropriate, and I'm sure her boyfriend would love to hear you say that again. Come on in, you two." They entered with the expected awkwardness; nobody in class knew what to say to the new kids who just walked in, and they didn't know what to say to the class.

"Please take the two seats in the back right corner. I'm sure you'll have time to socialize with your classmates during lunch or advisory. Now, starting today's lesson..." she said, both of them losing focus on her voice. Weaver looked over to see a group of kids all wearing letterman jackets; one of the larger ones put his hands under his pecs, acting like he was jiggling invisible boobs. The rest of them laugh, but before he could react, Raven pulled him to their seats

"I'm gonna be in detention day one."

"You've got gym with these guys. Feel free to do it then. I'll do something to get it with you if you want."

"Sounds like a plan. Just give me a heads up. We need to make sure we establish that we aren't to be screwed with."

"I'm with you, one hundred percent." The rest of class went by without a hitch, and the bell rang before they knew it.

"What's next?" Weaver asked. He hadn't bothered to look at their schedules.

"Gym. We're going to be in separate locker rooms to change. You want to start something, I'd say you start it then."

"I will. Good luck," he said, kissing her quickly before running off to the locker rooms. He was able to get in before the jocks, and was glad to see his locker was right next to his. Him and his friends entered soon after him, and they grouped up around him quickly.

"Hey, kid, your girl's pretty bangin', for a _freak_."

"Do yourself a favor, _Jack_, and _step the fuck off._ You don't want to get into this."

"Oh, I don't, huh? Jerry? You think I should get into this?" A bald guy behind Weaver nodded.

"Yeah. You should just-" Weaver elbowed him in the throat and grabbed him by the neck, dropped to one knee, and slammed him down on it all in one smooth motion, ending with the satisfying crack of vertebrae popping.

"So, Jack, you still want to fuck with me?"

"Never wanted to fuck with you. Just want to fuck with that _fine_ piece of ass you're hauling around."

"Not gonna happen."

"You act like I've never faced resistance before. She'll be in my lap by the end of the week."

"You so much as look at her and I swear I'll switch around your eyeballs and your nuts. You might want to make sure Jerry can feel his legs." Weaver went to finish changing, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, man, I think we got off on the wrong foot. What's your name?"

"Gregory Weaver."

"Alright. Tommy, write that down so they've got something to put on the medical record." Jack headbutted him, sending him reeling; he tried to tackle him, but Weaver sidestepped, throwing him through the glass window of the football coach's office. He tried to get around the corner but the rest of the jocks were grabbing him, trying to pull him to the ground. He elbowed one and bit another, freeing his legs to get away and deal with them on equal footing. They retreated quickly, and Simon knew immediately somebody important was behind him. He turned to see a tall, chubby black man in a suit; he assumed this was the principal, as he'd been out when they were in the office before.

"What's going on here?" he asked, clearly trying to sound intimidating. Simon almost laughed, but kept his composure.

"The guys you just saw running were trying to jump me. I was defending myself, sir."

"What's your name, son?"

"Gregory Weaver."

"Wayne's kid. I'll let you go for now. I know those kids can be jerks to newcomers."

"Thank you, sir."

"Vogler. Mr. Vogler. They try anything else, you come to me. Got it?"

"Yes sir." He sat down, and Mr. Vogler left without causing any more problems. Simon sat down and got changed; other than some dirty looks from the jocks, there were no more issues. He got out onto the basketball court and laughed at how miserable Raven looked in the gym uniform.

"Shut up."

"Sorry, it's funny!"

"I _despise _uniforms."

"I know, I know."

"Did they give you a rundown of the rules? We just got yelled at for fighting."

"Did you get detention?"

"Surprisingly, no."

"They told us we were allowed to go anywhere on the school grounds as long as we were doing some kind of exercise."

"Jogging around the school, then?"

"Anything to get away from the drama queens. There doesn't seem to be many people we'll be getting along with."

"Have some hope." They walked off of the court and set off at a brisk jog around the school; it wasn't long before Weaver noticed somebody was following them. Raven grabbed his shoulder and they stopped to look at who it was; a short girl with large glasses was following them, her black hair flowing behind her.

"Rachel! Hey, I wanted to introduce myself before, but you kinda just rushed out here. I'm Isabelle."

"And why would you be introducing yourself?"

"Because unlike the rest of these idiots, I know who you two are. Apparently nobody ever watches the news around here."

"I don't think either of us really care as long as you keep your mouth shut, right, Rae?"

"Agreed."

"As long as you keep me around. I'm not exactly popular around here."

"Then you should get to jogging," Weave said, turning and starting his run again, the two girls following.

"So, what's it like to be in the Titans?"

"It's better than this, that's for sure," Simon replied shortly.

"How's Robin?"

"Taken," they both said at once.

"I'm not that fangirlish. I just happen to admire him."

"What happened to "not that fangirlish"?" Weaver asked. Isabelle paused for a moment, a puzzled look flashing across her face.

"Hard to explain. It's not _that _bad."

"I believe that. Totally believe that." Raven's words were dripping with sarcasm; she clearly wasn't impressed with the lie.

"Shit," Weaver hissed, looking into the treeline in front of them. Raven saw who it was and prepared for trouble. Red X stalked out of the woods, approaching them subtly to avoid attracting any more attention.

"Berlin."

"Moscow. What's happened with you lately?"

"Killed the Mask. Wayne sent me here to balance my life out."

"I heard you and Catgirl split up again."

"Don't do this to yourself. You're better than her."

"I'm taking that as a yes?"

"You keep chasing her and it never gets you anywhere. Move on, X." He sighed and took his mask off, revealing the heavily scarred face that he hadn't been able to identify.

"I have to. This is bigger than you and me. Just answer the damn question, Weaver."

"What's going on?"

"Just say it!"

"Simon! Get down! He's trying to-"

"Just say _yes!_"

Weaver tackled Raven and Isabelle to the ground, earning some nasty burns as Red X exploded, his back exploding through his chest and showering them in blood. What remained of his corpse flopped to the ground, his eyes now lifeless. Isabelle was screaming, and Raven clamped a hand over her mouth.

"What the fuck was that?!" Weaver yelled, trying to get off of the girls. He landed on his injured back and immediately recoiled, rolling back over onto his stomach. He saw the football coach charging towards them and he tried to get to his feet, but a look at Berlin's body made him queasy and he decided to stay down for the moment.

"What the hell just happened?" the coach yelled; being the only one currently capable of speaking, Raven answered, trying to keep in character.

"I have no idea! He just walked up and exploded!"

"Go and get the security guard. Son, you alright down there?"

"No. Get help. Bleeding..." Simon's vision started to blur; he could tell when he was about to pass out from blood loss, and this was exactly it.


	15. Chapter 15 Rebirth

"Wake up." His eyes opened up to find himself in a dark room, a single computer monitor in front of him, accompanied by a webcam.

"Where the hell am I?"

"That doesn't matter. You are alive. Be thankful."

"Alive? When was I in danger?" He looked at his chest, his suit having been torn open and a massive hole in his chest patched together.

"You don't remember, do you? That's common for trauma. Being such a gangster, I expected you to be stronger than that." He looked around, not able to make out and discernible details that could help him get out. "I will release you momentarily, Roman. Simon Weaver tried to kill you. Technically, he succeeded. You were legally dead for quite a while longer than you should have been able to come back from. He put his fist through your chest. Quite impressive, if you ask me."

"Who are you?"

"I am not important. My benefactor, however, is. Somebody has decided that your little enemy will become a major threat if not taken care of properly."

"Gladly. What do I have to do?"

"I'm sure he'll want to explain for himself." The lights came on one by one, revealing the massive monolith of a figure in the center of the room. His forearms and hands had a glow like fiery coals in a pit; the rest of his body was composed of solid stone.

"Darkseid."

"We must act quickly."


	16. Chapter 16 Awake and Alive

Weaver sat up quickly, regretting as he did so; the scabs on his back cracked at once, forcing sharp pains throughout his body. The nurse pushed him back down onto the bed gently, saying something to him that his muddled mind couldn't make out. He felt a slight probing sensation in his head and did his best to clear his mind; Raven's voice came through loud and clear.

"You're hurt, pretty badly. Stay down and rest. I know you're not going to want to, but it's the best thing to do right now. Bruce is here. You aren't going to like what he just told me." He groaned, not sure how loud he was. It felt like there was water in his ears, and he could barely hear anything. Bruce Wayne stepped into the room and stood over him for a moment. He saw Batman's lips moving, but still couldn't hear anything, so he shook his head and pointed at his ear. Wayne nodded, grabbed a syringe, and jammed it into his ear. The syringe sucked the fluid out of his eardrum, and, despite the initial pain, Weaver was glad, and let him do the same to the other side.

"Better?"

"I can at least hear now."

"Red X is dead. He was sent by somebody else to attack you, but I don't know who. I'm trying to find the leverage this employer had over him, but for now, there are no leads. I also have a confession to make; all of your clothes were bugged. I didn't send you to that school entirely just to provide a distraction, but to collect intel. There's been some talk that a terrorist cell is planning on attacking local schools, Gotham High being the epicenter of the attacks, but that's all so far. I was hoping sending you there would help the case, but it seems like the police might be able to do a better job here."

"No. I'll do it."

"You haven't seen yourself. Let's put it this way. Even _I _would be taking a few days off at this point. You were lucky to survive the blast, Simon. Don't push your luck."

"You wouldn't be taking any time off and we both know it. Don't try to stop me." He tried to get up again and Bruce pushed him down, holding him to the bed.

"Nurse! Can we get restraints? Patient keeps trying to get out of the bed." The nurse rushed in with a set of leather straps seconds later, muttering to herself before straightening out.

"Yes sir, Mr. Wayne." He held Weaver down while the nurse strapped his wrists to the sides of the bed, rendering him immobile.

"Bed rest. Several days. I don't want you leaving this room without a damn good reason." Bruce left, leaving Weaver fuming.

"Yo, Rob, you hear what Weaver did?"

"Of course I heard it."

"I just found out, sorry."

"How did you not know?"

"Was down for repairs, been out of contact with the world the last few days. I thought you knew."

"No, I didn't."

"I'm gonna kill BB." They settled down on the couch in Titan's Tower, watching the news as it reported on the "betrayal of trust".

"Cindy Sinclair, reporting on the murder of the crime boss Black Mask, known publicly as Roman Sionis. Teen Titans member Nightweaver had been in a battle with him nearly since his beginnings as a hero. The rivalry escalated into a full scale war over time; at one point, Nightweaver had believed he had already killed Black Mask, although this information was not made available to us until recently. As it turns out, the Roman Sionis he had killed was actually a clone, and the real Roman assaulted Nightweaver, Catgirl, and Raven in the mansion they shared. He drugged all three of them and executed the two girls, forcing Nightweaver to watch. This affected the hero drastically, and eventually he killed himself. However, through Raven's ties with her father, the demon Trigon, and the hatred Trigon had for Nightweaver, they were eventually resurrected; unfortunately, things wouldn't return to quite the same. We have Catgirl here for commentary on the troubled hero's psyche." The camera panned to her, sitting in a chair across from the reporter.

"He wasn't able to live with himself. He didn't really want to come back to life; Black Mask forced him to choose which of us he would kill first, which was a decision that nobody should ever be subjected to. It just..." She started to tear up for a moment, and Cindy put a hand on her shoulder in support.

"It tore him apart. There's no other way to put it. He wasn't the same, and he still isn't. He was irritable before, yeah, but from then on he's just seemed angry."

"Angry at what?"

"Everything. Like he was mad at the world for making somebody like Black Mask, mad at the world for turning him into who he was, mad at the world for putting him in that position. To this day he has serious trust issues."

"I've been told you two recently broke up?"

"Yes, but that was understandable. He's had trouble staying with anybody for too long. I'm not angry about that at all."

"So, would you say that he's seemed unstable?"

"That's a loaded question, and any answer I give to it would put him in a bad light."

"Well, how would you best describe his attitude towards Black Mask?"

"He became the boogieman. Everywhere he turned, he would see Sionis, even if nobody else saw anything. Let's say the Joker was making a distraction for Batman by using his gas in Jump; this didn't actually happen, it's just an example. He would do something like take apart one of the gassers or find a bomb, tear it apart, and he'd find something that Black Mask sold the Joker, and all of a sudden, the entire thing was Roman's plan and he had to stop him. He'd vanish for days at a time, even a week, then come back pissed off, excuse my language."

"So this just kept escalating?"

"Yes. He eventually told Robin he was going to take leave from the Titans to go after him. We eventually found out that he was trying to team up with other villains who had an interest in taking out Black Mask; him and Red Hood have been longtime enemies, the Joker wanted him dead because he thought it would be fun to watch, some other gang bosses wanted him gone to help business, etcetera."

"That's a pretty scary thought."

"The Titans tried to help. He hired an assassin to help him, and that turned out badly. That still hasn't been resolved. But the moment he got the opportunity, he used a power we weren't aware of."

"And that was?"

"He had upgraded his suit to give him brief bursts of amazing strength. He punched a hole straight through Black Mask's chest. He was pronounced dead an hour later."

"Well, that's it, ladies and gentlemen. Is this a tragedy, an example of freedom gone too far? Or is it a godsend, a hero removing a cancer to our well being? This is Cindy Sinclair, signing off." The show cut back to the regular news, with the two anchors both trying to discuss the situation.

"Damn. I didn't think he had it in him," Cyborg said, feeling sorry for his friend.

"He'll be alright. Batman has him for now. He'll get him fixed up." His communicator buzzed, and he had a terrible feeling immediately.

"Robin."

"Batman, what is it?"

"Red X just suicide bombed Nightweaver and Raven. When he's able to move, I'm sending them back to Titans Tower."

"I don't think that's a very good id-"

"It's the safest place for them. I've done my research. One of them is being targeted, and, since he's made a much larger impression lately, I'd be willing to bet my money on Nightweaver. I'm going to solve this, but I need you and your team to keep him safe until I can fix this."

"I see your point. When?"

"He'll be safe to be medevaced in three days. He had a room there, correct?"

"We'll take care of things here. Don't worry about that."

"Good to be able to count on you, Robin. You're doing a good job out there. Keep up the good work." The call ended before Robin could respond; a compliment from the Dark Knight was rare, and he was just glad to have it.

"Cy, get the others and get Weaver's room set up. Sterilized."

"What?"

"Long story. Get to it."


	17. Chapter 17 Bed Rest is Boring

A white and red helicopter landed on the roof of Titans Tower; a team of four medical technicians got out quickly and rolled out the small ramp. Weaver's wheelchair came down it slowly, being pushed along by another MT. Robin opened the stairwell door, greeting his teammate.

"Nice to have you back, Weaver."

"Yeah. Great." Raven smacked him on the back of the head, glaring at him. "Sorry. Nice to be back."

"I'll let you get straightened out, but then we should probably talk in my room. I'll be waiting."

The room was nearly bare; his bed was the only piece of furniture, facing the room's sole window. The Jump City skyline was visible, the sunset outlining the silhouettes of buildings in the distance. There was a knock at his door, and Weaver grabbed his cane and hobbled over to it, smacking the open button. Robin was on the other side, leaning against the wall.

"You were supposed to come and talk to me."

"Sorry. Got a lot on my mind." He limped back to the bed and sat down, inviting Robin to come and sit down.

"You alright?"

"Not really."

"Let me see your leg." He rolled his pant leg up, showing the fractured kneecap and torn calf that was forcing him to limp.

"It'll be back to normal soon enough. But I mean are _you _alright?"

"Not really."

"Talk to me, then. Is it Black Mask?"

"No, he's dead."

"You don't feel guilty?"

"He shot Kitrina and Raven in the head. Kitrina twice. I don't feel guilty. I'm proud of what I did. I just feel uneasy. Like we're on the brink and about to tip over."

"Gut feelings are typically right. That's why Bruce sent you here. He's trying to take care of the issue, but he wants you here so that we can protect you."

"I can protect myself."

"Not injured like you are. Don't fight me, Simon. I'm on your side."

"Don't give me your stereotypical bullshit, Robin."

"I ju-"

"Forget it. Sorry. I'm trying to get a hold of that. But I need you to do me a favor."

"What?"

"Get Cyborg to install a screen in here and a camera on the front door. I don't want to let somebody in that I don't want to talk to."

"Kitrina?"

"Who else?"

"I understand, but you need to resolve your issues. We can't have you here if you two are constantly fighting."

"I will, I just can't right now."

"And, if you don't mind me saying, resolve your issues _for good_ this time. I'm sorry, but you two just don't work together. It'll go well for a little while, but at the first hint of trouble, you'll hate each other again. Just try to be friends. Raven's better for you. I'm going to go and brief the others on the situation, do you want anything?"

"Send Rae in when you're done."

"You got it."

Twenty minutes later, he heard Raven's footsteps in the hall, then inside of his room. She'd simply walked through the wall, ignoring the door entirely.

"Was that necessary?"

"I know you keep it locked, and I know you'd just let me in. What did you want?"

"You know I hate to ask you to do this, but could you do some work on my leg? I want to be back in action ASAP." She nodded and put his leg flat on the bed, then put her hands on his calf and knee. Raven screwed her eyes shut, and he could feel the muscle fibers sewing themselves back together, his fractured kneecap becoming whole again. Once she was satisfied with her work, Raven stood back, shook her head clear of the pain, and straightened out.

"Try and walk." Simon stood up and his knee popped back into place, but he was otherwise fine. "Take it easy for the next day or two, get it back to normal, then you should be good to go."

"Thanks, Rae. I owe you." He hugged her, and she stood by awkwardly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just... Nevermind."

"Tell me."

"I don't think having you and Kitrina in the same building is a good idea."

"I don't either."

"The same zip code probably isn't a good idea."

"I get it. Robin wants me to make nice with her, but he's right. We're never going to be able to be together. Besides, you're better than she is. I can see that now."

"I'm not so sure you do," Raven said, covering herself with her cloak and pulling the hood up.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you signed off a little too quickly on this whole deal. You're drawn to her."

"Just because I'm drawn to her doesn't mean I'm going to act on it."

"Can we just hold off for a little while? I just don't want to get hurt again."

"I understand. I'll be here when you're ready." Simon sat down next to her and leaned his head on her shoulder; they sat peacefully for a good while, soaking in the moment. Raven finally got up and went to leave, but turned to him just before she walked out of the door.

"You're good, Simon. I hope you're right about what you said." She left, leaving him to his thoughts.

After several days of light training, Nightweaver stepped into his repaired suit, snapped the remaining pieces into place, and powered it on. Somebody knocked on his door, and he looked at the monitor. Catgirl was standing there, body language sending mixed signals.

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"We're talking."

"I just wanted to know if you were okay."

"Then you could have asked somebody else. Don't lie to me."

"Fine. I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a bitch when you needed something from me."

"Apology accepted."

"So can I come in?" He popped the door open and walked through, pushing past her and locking the door behind him.

"Nope."

"Where are you going?"

"On patrol. Starting light."

"Are we okay?"

"Jesus, you really don't get it, do you? I'm done, Kitrina. I don't want to do this with you anymore. All of this back and forth bullshit, it's just..."

"Bullshit?"

"Exactly."

"I'm sorry. I promise, it'll stop."

"I know it will, because it isn't _starting _again." He'd reached the elevator and tried to descend without her, but she put a hand in the door and stepped in before it left.

"Simon, please. I love you."

"No, you don't. You just don't have anybody else to lock on to. Go out and find another guy to torture."

"I died for you."

"Oh, yeah, guilt trip me. That's going to work." The elevator hit the bottom of the building and he walked through the main hall and left through the front door, leaving Kitrina standing in the entrance.

"What, so that's it, then? You're just going to walk away?!"

"Yup."

"No wonder so many people hate you! You're an ass!"

"Yup." He shot his grappling hook at the bridge, bringing himself to it in seconds and finally getting away from Catgirl. He climbed to the top of the structure, then dove off and swung from hook to hook until he reached the center of the city. It took him about twenty minutes longer than usual because of his rustiness, but he was standing atop the tallest building in Jump. His communicator vibrated and he blinked at his HUD, answering Robin's call.

"What did you just do?"

"What?"

"Catgirl just came through here yelling at everybody, tore up her room, then left. She said one thing to me, and that was that she was going to kill you. I tried to stop her and she almost slit my throat."

"She tried to get back together with me and I told her no. Then she tried to guilt trip me and I called her on it. I haven't done anything wrong here."

"Either way, be careful. She had a gun."

"I can't fight somebody as well trained as her right now. I'm too out of practice."

"I'll send Star and Raven. They're the only ones that'll get there fast enough to help."

"Thanks. I won't let anything happen to them."

"Try and calm her down, Weaver. This is your fault." Raven showed up instantly, ready to fight.

"Where is she?"

"Damned if I know. Robin just said she's coming after me. Psycho bitch."

"Shut the fuck up!" Catgirl came flying at them from the ledge behind them, digging her claws into his back and knocking him to the ground. Nightweaver elbowed her in the forehead, knocking her off of his back and gaining some distance. Raven snapped a satellite dish off of the rooftop and swung it at her, catching Catgirl in the chest and knocking her off of the building. She telekinetically grabbed her and brought her back to safety; they weren't looking to kill her, after all. Starfire showed up and tried to hold her down, but Kitrina kicked her in the gut, digging a blade-tipped high heel into her stomach.

"Kitrina! Stop this! It's over!"

"Oh, I know it is!" She tried to throw a throwing knife at him, but Raven caught it in mid-air and jammed it into Catgirl's leg. She tried to walk but stumbled, landing on one knee in front of Nightweaver.

"If you won't give up, then I'll have no choice but to not hold back. Neither of us wants that."

"Screw you. Go ahead. Beat a woman. Do it."

"Your shit isn't working on me. I fully believe it is entirely just to hit a woman if she's coming at you with lethal weapons. Sorry." He kneed her in the jaw, knocking her out cold. Raven pulled the blade from her leg and sealed the wound.

"She'll be alright," Raven noted.

"Are you alright, friend?" Starfire asked, approaching Weaver gently.

"Yeah. It had to be done. Thanks, though."

"I'll get her back to the Tower." Raven vanished in a portal of darkness with Catgirl, leaving them alone.

"Go back to the Tower, tell Robin the situation's fine. I need some time to clear my head."

"Are you sure?"

"Star, please, just go." She shied away, then flew off towards the island. He sat with his legs dangling off of the edge, trying to focus on the good in life, but finding little to grasp,


	18. Chapter 18 724

"Back already, huh?"

"I can sense your sarcasm." Weaver hadn't gotten back in the tower until nearly three A.M., and Beast Boy was waiting by the front door.

"They asked me to wait up for you since I'd probably be awake playing GameStation anyways. Wanted to make sure you got in fine."

"What did they do with Kitrina?"

"Locked up in the prison cell. She hasn't stopped yelling. Had to turn on the sound dampeners. What'd you do to her, man?"

"Told her the truth. Maybe I was a bit harsh, but I did what had to be done, said what needed to be said." Beast Boy got up and offered his shoulder for support.

"How'd you know I pulled something?"

"Raven's healed my up before, too. No matter what you do, you always screw something up the first time you go all out. Probably something that has to do with the magic. I dunno." He leaned on his shoulder and the two went up the stairs slowly.

"So, how've you been? We haven't talked in a long time."

"Pretty good. Once I got over the whole situation with Raven everything kinda just got easier. Felt like I was more free."

"That's good to hear. Any other ladies in your life?"

"To be entirely honest, not really. I tried meeting people, but I just haven't gotten anything yet."

"Keep trying, BB. You're a good guy. Somebody'll come along."

"I know. It's just hard sometimes." They'd reached the top of the steps, and Weaver decided he could walk on his own.

"Thanks for the help. Get some sleep."

"I can turn into any nocturnal animal I want. I can stay up as long as I want."

"Point proven. See you tomorrow."

Simon snapped to his feet at the sound of the alarm.

"There's an intruder in the tower! Find them!" Robin yelled over the intercom. "Catgirl isn't in her containment cell!" Before he could get suited up, somebody pounded at his door.

"What the hell is it?" More knocking. He checked the screen; the camera had been disabled. "Shit. Shit shit shit." He tried to get into his suit, but his hands were fidgety and he had difficulty popping the clasps into place. Halfway through getting everything on, there was a hard smash against his door, and he knew what was going on. He put his helmet on, popped it into place, initialized the HUD, and got ready for the worst. He hit the button on the door, and Catgirl was standing in the doorway, ready to fight.

"This is it, _bitch_." She kicked him in the jaw, sending him backwards and collapsing into the wall. She clawed at his face, putting three large claw marks in his visor. It was difficult seeing through them, but he didn't plan on fighting anyways. He rolled to the side, elbowed the window open, and held a hand out to stop her.

"They aren't going to get me this time, Kitrina. I know the game." She tried to tackle him and Weaver kneed her in the gut, picked her up, and forced her through the open window. He'd spotted the time bomb on her belt the moment she came in, and any explosion in the room was sure to kill him.

"Idiot! This bomb wasn't meant to just kill _you_! It's a mini nuke!" His head dropped for a moment, trying to think.

"Great. Great." He punched her in the face, knocking her out, then pulled her inside the building.

"Raven! I need help!" She was in the room in moments, emerging through the ceiling.

"What?"

"Get us into deep space. Way deep."

"Why?"

"Mini nuke. Can't get it off of her."

"You're lying! You didn't even try, did you?"

"You know she's just going to come back."

"Not our call, Simon." She ripped the bomb off of Catgirl's belt and tried to teleport away, but the bomb shot a needle out, piercing her wrist and injecting a vile green liquid into her bloodstream.

"What the...?" Simon pushed the bomb away with his foot and helped Raven to the floor, Catgirl was laughing hysterically; she'd evidently faked being knocked out.

"It isn't a mini nuke. It's a bomb injector. That just put three thousand self multiplying nanobombs in her veins. Five minutes from now, they'll be in the millions. Each of them exploding with the force of a pound of C4. You have twenty minutes, Simon. Then, you're mine."

"No, I'm not." He picked up the injector and jammed the needle in his arm, letting the bombs flow directly into his bloodstream.

"You _idiot_!"

"Who gave you the injector? Who let you loose?!"

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is whether or not you find the neutralizer."

"The neutralizer?"

"It's in our old mansion. You know, the one you picked me to die in. You'll never guess where!"

"I hate you. Go to hell, yo- ugh..." He dropped to one knee, the nanobombs causing odd fluctuations in his blood. "Raven... can you teleport us?"

"No... can't breathe well..." Robin ran into the room and saw them struggling to maintain consciousness on the floor. They quickly explained the situation, and Robin called the rest of the Titans. The group brainstormed for a minute, then Robin split them up.

"Cyborg, Beast Boy, you're our best chance at getting the bombs out of them without the neutralizer. Star, you and I will go and get it from their old place. Titans, go!" Cyborg strapped them to the examination tables and tried getting the nanobombs out mechanically, but there were just too many.

"Could we like, freeze them or something? Wouldn't that slow down the bombs?"

"Not enough without killing them. We'd be buying seconds. We need more."

"Alright, so I saw this episode of House once, where this guy's blood was killing him, so they filtered it through a pig! Could we do something like that?"

"We don't _have a pig_." Beast Boy morphed into one, grinning from ear to ear.

"You'd be committing suicide!"

"Oh yeah... Crap."

"Although a blood transfusion could work, if we could get the infected blood into an animal that we could get to a safe distance before the explosion went off."

"But we don't have any animals, and it would take too long to get any..."

"So we need something else."

"No. I'll do it."

"BB, don't be an idiot."

"Look, these two are some of my best friends. I'll do it."

"You sure about this?"

"I'd be able to get to Starfire and Robin faster than if they came here. How fast can we do this?"

"A while anywhere else, but less than a minute here, shorter if we can target specifically the infected blood. No time to check if they're matching, we can keep them on life support until we can fix it."

"Let's do this."

"Where is it?!" Robin yelled, smashing vases and glassware. They didn't even know what they were looking for; something out of place, hopefully.

"Robin! I believe I have found it!" Starfire flew through the mansion and met back up with him with a vial of purple fluid.

"I hope you did. Let's go."

"Stop... inject... it... into... me..." Weaver sputtered out.

"That doesn't make any sense, man."

"Ice... powers... can suppress.. stop explosion..."

"You'd have to remain entirely emotionless."

"Do it!" he yelled, clutching his chest as soon as he did so. Cyborg plugged Raven's blood drips into his arm, then detached his blood drips from Beast Boy and put them into a container; then, he took Beast Boy's blood drips and put them into Raven, to bring them both back to health.

An explosion rocked throughout the entire tower. Cyborg braced himself on a wall, then went back to work; he couldn't afford to go and find out what was going on. He wished he hadn't put BB into their circulation, but it was too late now.

"Weaver, Raven and BB are clear of nanobombs. They've replaced 37% of the blood cells. You better get calmed down, fast."

"I've.. got it..." His skin began to slowly turn blue, alarming Cyborg greatly.

"I thought you just had ice vision?"

"Trick... I learned... works everywhere..." His veins had begun to glow slightly green where the nanobombs were especially numerous. Raven and Beast Boy had begun to awaken, and they both groaned loudly. Cyborg ran a quick blood test on them; Raven was incompatible with Beast Boy's blood, so he started to give them both their correct types, then returned his attention to Nightweaver.

"Something happened downstairs, I've got to go check it out. You got this, man?"

"Go..."

"We are almost there, Robin!"

"Don't tell me, Star, just fly faster!" The Tower was within sight, a pillar of smoke rising from the bottom. The front doors were blown off as a man in a suit entered the building, surrounded by mercenaries disembarking from a helicopter.

"Star, take care of them, I'll handle the nanobombs!" She tossed him towards the top floor windows and he threw two birdarangs at them, shattering the glass. Robin went running down the stairs towards the infirmary, made increasingly worried by the gunfire Starfire was attracting, but ignored it and kept running. As he reached the third floor, he found himself cornered by four men; three mercenaries, and Black Mask.

"What..?" He couldn't react before an unseen enemy behind him pistol whipped him in the head, knocking him out.

"Robin, that you?" Cyborg yelled. A metal plate slid across the ground in front of him, skidded to a halt, then exploded in a shower of sparks and chain lightning. His systems overloaded, Cyborg collapsed to the ground, his robotic eye fading to black as he passed out.

Black Mask turned the corner into the infirmary and stopped; Raven and Beast Boy were entirely unconscious, but a multicolored Nightweaver was struggling to his feet, his skin glowing a bright blue, his veins venomously green.

"You... you should be dead."

"As should you."

"I killed you."

"Don't get too agitated, kid. You'll just be doing my job for me." He punched Weaver in the face; in his weakened state, he collapsed against the examining table, then fell to the ground.

"Don't.. make.. me..."

"You're dying _today_." Black Mask stood over him, yanking a pistol from out of his pants.

"Then so are you." Nightweaver used his telekinesis to form a barrier between them and around them, preventing Black Mask from shooting him.

"What are you doing?!" They began levitating and vibrating, gaining immense amounts of energy.

"My telekinesis is fueled by my willpower. There are two things I want more than anything else in this world. I want to save my friends. I want to keep them alive. I want you to die." They shot through the ceiling, through the roof, through the atmosphere. Fire collected around them as they gained speed, the flames being eventually quelled by the icy cold of space.

"Roman Sionis, your time has come, and if I must die to ensure it, then I will." He let the barrier between them vanish, leaving them in their own forcefield. "You're dying _today_!" He let loose, not trying to control his anger, not attempting to keep himself calm; he delivered a brutal one-two combo to his stomach and head, unleashed a flurry of punches directly to Roman's mask, and headbutted him, forcing a crack through the ebony casing. He grabbed the crime boss's gun and pistol whipped him over and over, expanding the crack further, then grabbed a hold of either side and tore it off of him.

Roman collapsed to the ground, trying to defend himself from the onslaught. He gave one last look at Nightweaver before Simon finally lost it; the ice in his skin gave way to the explosives in his veins, and an explosion with the force of 724 trillion pounds of C4 exploded within the space of a five by six foot box.


	19. Chapter 19 Redeath

"What... what happened?" Raven asked, rubbing her head. She had somehow gotten onto the couch in the main room The other Titans, save for Nightweaver, were in similar positions around them; there were soldiers tied up in the corner, and Batman had dragged a chair into the center of the room and had his head in his hands. His mask had been thrown down to the ground; she was struggling to comprehend what had happened.

"Batman? What's going on?"

"I put you all in danger. I'm sorry. I never should have sent you back here."

"What happened?"

"Kitrina was a double agent, persuaded to work for the same person that forced Red X to bomb you two, and who resurrected Black Mask."

"Black Mask is alive?"

"Was."

"Bruce, what's wrong?"

"You know about the nanobombs. Nightweaver had Cyborg channel them all into him. He used his powers to try and freeze himself. Slow the timer down."

"And Robin got the neutralizer?"

"Almost."

"No!"

"Black Mask tried to break his concentration. Nightweaver encased them both in a forcefield and blew himself up inside of it." The remaining pieces of glass in the tower shattered as Raven's emotions ran haywire. Plates, bowls, light bulbs, the TV screens, anything fragile, exploded. She threw her head into her hands and started sobbing; the walls began cracking and chunks of the ceiling started to fall.

"I failed you all. I made the wrong call and almost got all of you killed." Cyborg buzzed to life, his systems restoring after the massive shock.

"Woah! What happened here?" Raven tried to answer, but couldn't get a word out before she was taken by another sobbing fit. Batman explained the situation, and Cyborg rushed to the computers; all of the monitors were broken, so he plugged directly into the data feed.

"Good news and bad news. Bad news is, the Tower's going to be down for at least a year. Good news is, Weaver might be alive. Kinda."

"What?!" Raven yelled, searching for hope.

"With as much explosive force as there was inside of that small of an impenetrable space, it most likely didn't actually kill the subjects inside, but it would have been forced to implode. That would've opened up a wormhole and sucked them through into another dimension."

"Good work, Cyborg. See if you can save him. I'm sorry." He tore his cape off and threw it to the ground, then dropped out of the front window, leaving his mask behind.

"Cyborg... can you find where he would have gone?"

"No. It would have to be an unrestricted search."

"I can't do that alone."

"The Justice League could use the Cosmic Treadmill and have the Flash help."

"Please." Robin woke up and rolled over, coming face to face with Bruce's discarded mask.

"What? What is this?"

"I think he quit, man," Cyborg said, offering a hand to him. Robin took it and got to his feet, brushed himself off, and looked around.

"I'm going after him. I've seen this before."

"Do you think he's alive? Honestly?" Raven asked, searching for reassurance.

"I hope he is, but I wouldn't bet on it, Rae. I'm sorry, but the chances of him landing in a survivable dimension are astronomical. I'll try. If anybody could survive this, it's him."

"I shouldn't have doubted him. That's why he was so rude to her."

"It wasn't your fault. You're just going through loss. Don't lose hope yet."

"Treadmill's almost ready. Everybody knows what order to go in, right?" The Flash asked; a line of superheroes waited to enter the teleporter he was powering. Cyborg was manning the computers; Steel was first in line to get transported. Raven and several other heroes with transdimensional capabilities had already begun searching. Flash yelled out to Cyborg, the only person that could hear him over the treadmill's loud grinding.

"How did we get all of these people here?" he asked, staring straight ahead and running as fast as he could.

"Titans take care of their own. We've got a lot of pull with some very important people."

"I hope it's enough."

Nightweaver opened his eyes; everything was incredibly blurry, so he closed them again and let them rest. The air smelled _terrible_, reeking of trash and mildew. He could feel wetness under him, and he knew he wasn't wearing anything.

_That's right. I exploded. Makes sense._ His senses were beginning to come back to him; his back was leaning on a cold brick wall, and he was sitting on concrete. His eyes started working again, so he observed his surroundings. Three homeless men surrounded a barrel with flames rising from the top, ignoring him and focusing on their sole source of heat. He had no idea what city he was in, just that it was a _very _cold night and he needed to warm up. He stood and walked over to the flaming barrel and put his hands over it, trying to get some heat into them.

"Here." One of the hobos grabbed a spare pair of pants from a trash can and tossed them towards Weaver. He slipped into them and expressed his thanks, then went back to trying to warm up. The man who'd given him the pants, a fairly short man with short red hair and bugged out eyes, kept scanning their surroundings, waiting for trouble.

"If-if you don't mind me asking, what year is it?" The thick man across from him laughed.

"Bad trip, huh?"

"It's a long story."

"1983. November. Don't know what day it is."

"The twenty second," the short man chimed in, staring intensely into the flames.

"Yeah, that's right." The situation made no sense, but he decided to keep calm and try to figure things out.

"Where are we?"

"New York."

"That explains the cold. Last thing I remember was being in Jump City."

"What the hell's Jump City?"

"West coast, really big port city, huge red bridge keeping it together?"

"That'd be San Francisco, idiot."

"Leave the kid alone," the short man warned. Like a pack dog being ordered by the alpha, he shied away and went rummaging through a dumpster. "You're going to need to see Manhattan."

"What?"

"Hold on." He threw a trench coat over his street clothes, pulled a white and black mask on over his head, and put a fedora on. The transformation took seconds, and when he turned back around, he was face to face with Rorschach.

"Somebody's gonna have to explain this to me."

"Come with me." He walked towards the end of the alley and elbowed a window open, reached in, and opened the door to the side of it, granting them access to a closed restaurant. They both entered and Nightweaver took a seat, his head still swimming.

"What happened to me?"

"I have no idea, but you don't want to be here. Things are going to get bad soon."

"Since when do you worry about other people?"

"I don't let innocents die, and you have nothing to do with all of this. Manhattan might still be packing up. Let's go."

"Right now?" He was answered with Rorschach picking the lock on the front door and walking out; he kept a fast pace, and Nightweaver had a difficult time keeping up with him. They eventually reached an empty apartment complex, the pile of moving boxes left on the lawn.

"Hold on." Rorschach walked across the street to a gas station and popped a quarter into the payphone; within five minutes, Nite Owl showed up in a massive flying machine. He dropped out of the bottom, reminding Weaver of Batman.

"What's the situation?"

"You remember when we got stuck in that other dimension? Some crap that Manhattan was pulling?"

"Yeah?"

"This is the kid that was getting attacked by all those villains. Something brought him here."

"And he needs to get back?"

"I was hoping Manhattan could transfer him back home."

"He's already at the Air Force base. I'm not setting foot in there. Vigilantes are on thin ice as is, you know that."

"Then get us there. I'll handle it."

"Be careful. They'll shoot you on sight."

"You guys are gonna have a blast when they invent cell phones."

"What phones?" Nite Owl asked, his face curling in confusion.

"They're like landlines, but you can use them anywhere."

"What, just plug them in and they work?"

"No, you don't have to plug them in. Really useful for getting a hold of people you can't get to. I assume Dr. Manhattan doesn't have a phone?"

"He'd ignore it. He never answers his phone. Never." Archimedes lowered down far enough for them to climb in the hole in the bottom, and they were off in a few minutes.

"They're trying to bring him back, sir. They've discovered that Nightweaver and Black Mask most likely survived."

"We have the opening we need. Send boom tubes to Metropolis and Gotham. We will take humanity's crown jewels."

"Flash, shut it down."

"We've only gotten three people into the portal!"

"Darkseid's attacking Metropolis and Gotham. We've got boom tube signatures showing up everywhere. He's my friend, Flash, and I don't want to do this, but he's not worth two whole cities of people. We can search for him later." Flash slowed to a stop, bringing the treadmill to a grinding halt.

"Raven, your call." She'd been waiting for all of the other heroes to get through before searching herself; nobody debated the logic. She took a moment to think, but then realized what was needed.

"It's what he'd do in my situation. If he's in a survivable dimension, he'll be alive when we fight off the Apokoliptians."

"We'll make it fast," Superman said, approaching from the Watchtower's teleporter.

"Cyborg, which city's in worse conditions?" Raven asked impatiently.

"Metropolis. Darkseid probably anticipated that Superman would be there."

"Somebody needs to find Batman. We can't defend Gotham properly without him. Nobody knows it the way he does," Superman said, worrying about his friend. Robin appeared in the doorway, having just taken the teleporter.

"He's retiring. I couldn't convince him that it wasn't his fault."

"That doesn't sound much like him."

"I think he just needs some time. He isn't used to making mistakes."

"I'll handle it." Raven got up, but Robin held her back.

"His mind's too strong for your powers. Everybody's tried it on him. It doesn't work."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. He's Batman. If he doesn't want to be found, he isn't found."

"That's too bad." Raven vanished in a cloud of darkness, leaving the other superheroes to organize against the Apokoliptian invasion. Green Lantern moved to the front of the room, addressing all of them.

"I'll get as many Lanterns as I can to help us. We're probably going to want to send some more people to Metropolis than Gotham. Let's get this done, people!"

"I'm sorry. I cannot help you."

"_What_?" Nightweaver spat out in disbelief; they'd gone through the trouble of breaking into a military base for nothing, then.

"It is beyond my ability to accurately transport between dimensions."

"You're revered as a god and you can't even get this done?" Rorschach asked 67

"Interdimensional travel is difficult, Rorschach. I would not expect you to understand."

"Good, because I don't! You need to find a way to help this kid. He's not cut out for our world, and if we can't help him, nobody will."

"Ozymandeus may be able to help you further."

"We both know he can't. Try."

"If I do manage to transport his body to another dimension, the chance of his collective consciousness remaining intact is fifty percent. The chance of him landing in his own dimension is infinitessimally small. Landing somewhere survivable in his own dimension even smaller. Attempting this would be sending him to almost certain death."

"What can we do?" Weaver asked, trying to ease the tension.

"I can try and develop a method, but until then, we would have to try to keep you safe."

"In my dimension, we have the capability to do interdimensional travel safely. Is there any way for us to tell them I'm here?"

"I am capable of moving myself across dimensions. I will have them come and get you as soon as possible, then."

"Thank you, doctor."

"I am only righting a wrong."

Raven prepared herself to go down to Gotham and fight; she took several quiet minutes alone to meditate and calm the raging waters of her mind. She floated around two feet in the air, gently bobbing up and down peacefully, her cloak gently falling below her.

"You know I can sense you, right?" she asked, knowing she had been being watched nearly since she began meditating.

"You alright?" Red Hood asked, walking in front of her and dropping to a crouch.

"As well as could be expected. Why are you here?"

"I know I don't exactly give off good vibes, but I like Nightweaver. He reminds me a lot of myself, if I'm being perfectly honest. He's angry. He's got issues that I understand. I just wanted to let you know that I'm trying to change what I was because of this. I was a real ass to him when he came to me for help, and I regret that. If you need anything to get him back, anything, then-" He was interrupted by a massive blue light appearing in the room; a tall, mostly nude, remarkably blue man appeared with them.

"Your friend is stuck in our dimension. He would like to come back." Raven was practically smiling from ear to ear the instant she heard the news.

"What was that, Jason?"

"We need Flash to operate the treadmill, then. I'll-"

"I can perform any speed based feat required. It would be a simple matter of telekinetically moving the gears."

"You don't understand. Flash is connected to the Speed Force. He's the fastest runner in the known universe. We need him."

"I will comply with your requests. You have more knowledge of this technology than I do, which is a statement I am not all too used to making." Red Hood dialed in his earpiece to the Justice League frequency, hoping Flash would be able to make it quickly.

"Justice League, this is Red Hood. A visitor from another dimension says that Nightweaver landed in his dimension. Flash, can we get a hand here?"

"How did you get onto this frequency, Hood?" Green Lantern responded angrily.

"That's beside the point. Is Flash free or not?"

"I can make it." Within a minute, Barry came in through the teleporter, eyeing Dr. Manhattan. "Hope this guy can work the controls. Cyborg's a little tied up."

"Our universes are nearly directly parallel. It should be a simple matter."

"I'll go in after him. How am I getting back?" Red Hood asked.

"Clip this to your jacket," Flash responded, handing him a large button. "Interdimensional communicator. You hit this, I'll start the treadmill up again, and that'll drag you and any biological matter you're in contact with at the time." Red Hood clipped it to his sleeve, the white and blue standing out in stark contrast to the gunmetal gray and blood red of his costume.

"Impressive," Manhattan noted.

"Raven, get to Gotham and help. I'll take care of this." Jason nodded to her, then stepped onto the teleportation pad. She vanished quickly through a portal, much too happy to be going to war.

"You know, Hood, you're the last person I'd expect to volunteer to go into an alien dimension to save somebody you don't know all too well. Especially seeing as _this guy_ is our sole representation of life there. No offense."

"None taken. I am not typical of my world. Do not expect much change, save for technological differences."

"Let's get this started."


	20. Chapter 20 Should Be Easy

Robin opened the door to Bruce's bedroom, knowing exactly where he was and what he was doing. He'd be brooding, sitting in a chair, staring out the window, or at something that meant something to him, like his mother's pearls. For all his mystery, Batman was predictable to those who knew him.

"You need to come back, Bruce."

"I can't. Not after nearly getting you and your friends killed, Dick. I'm getting sloppy, and that's not good for anyone."

"It's better than not being there at all. People are out there fighting right now to save a city you swore to protect. People could die out there without your help. You know the good you can do. I'm proof of that. You took an angry orphan and turned him into a full fledged superhero. I can't force you to come back, but you and I both know that it's the right thing for you to do."

"I know what you mean, but I can't take the chance of faltering. I'd never forgive myself if I caused more death."

"But you _are_! You're letting people die by not helping them!"

"What do you want me to do, Richard? Put the suit on and run out there? After almost getting kids killed?"

"First off, we aren't just kids and you know that. Second, that wasn't anybody's fault but Kitrina's. There was no way of knowing she'd get even more psycho. She's been taken care of."

"I don't know..."

"They sent _you_ in after me?"

"Volunteered," Red Hood responded, now in the alternate dimension. "Before we head back, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, as long as we keep it brief."

"You need to make sure you appreciate that girl. I have never seen somebody so dead set on doing the impossible. I can tell what's going on here. You two have history. She loves you. There's no question of that. Raven's just worried because you've broken her heart and she doesn't think she could take that again. I'm telling you right now, _don't_. It's rare you find somebody like her. Don't let it go to waste." Nightweaver sat down on a crate, trying to take the advice to heart as best he could; he knew Red Hood was right.

"Let's get back to her, then." Red Hood grabbed Weaver by the arm and hit the button on his sleeve.

Nothing happened. He hit it again.

Nothing.

"Oh son of a bitch..."

Flash dodged left and right as more Apokoliptians boarded the Watchtower. Dr. Manhattan simply stood back and watched as Flash rushed through the growing crowd of soldiers, tearing the weapons from their hands.

"Wanna gimme a hand, Doc?'

"Interference on my part may cause unpredictable consequences. I cannot see your universe's timeline as I can my own."

"Just do something! It'll make this a lot easier!"

"I attempted to warn you. I am not at fault if this has a terrible outcome." The Apokoliptians vaporized immediately, leaving behind nothing but dust.

"That's a pretty nifty power. Let's get those two back here."

"Keep a hold of me, Weaver. We don't know whether or not they're going to be able to get us back, so I'd rather not take the chance that I get taken back without you."

"I'm not holding your hand," he joked. Nonetheless, he made sure to remain in close proximity to Red Hood, just in case he needed to grab him.

"You three! On the ground!" Five soldiers armed to the teeth were holding them at gunpoint; Rorschach practically vanished, leaving Nightweaver and Red Hood stuck in front of a firing line. They complied quickly, lying on their stomachs and clasping their hands above their heads when they were told.

"Weaver, if you make it out of this, and I don't-"

"Shut up!"

"Grab a hold of me if I start to disappear. I don't know what it's going to look like." His feet started to dissolve, his matter disappearing from the universe as if burning section by section; Weaver grabbed the Hood's arm, and his legs started to transport as well.

"Stop doing what you're doing, or _we will shoot_!"

"Shit! Jason, _run!_" Weaver shot up and dragged Red Hood with him, jumping behind some crates as the soldiers opened up fire. Splinters rained down on them as lead flew through their cover; a bullet shot through Red Hood's arm and another through his leg just before they made it all the way through to the other side.

"Nightweaver! Are you alright?" Flash asked; they were flat on the floor of the teleporter pad, Flash crouched in front of them.

"Yeah. Hood's hurt. You need to help him. Where's Raven?"

"Down in Gotham. You're not in any condition to be fighting, Weaver."

"Fighting who?"

"Apokoliptians attacked just as we were about to mount a search and rescue. We figured two of the biggest cities in the world were more of a priority. No offense."

"I understand."

"I'll get her up here as soon as..." Barry trailed off, listening to something in his communicator.

"What is it?"

"The Apokoliptians just retreated. Why... what? That doesn't make sense."

"What?!"

"Batgirl's saying she saw Raven get knocked out. A whole squad of them grabbed her, and then they all just started to run off. Superman confirmed, they both had the Apokoliptians disappear in the same timeframe."

"She was their _objective_?"

"I don't know, Weaver." Simon walked over to the main computer and started typing on the keyboard; Flash tried to figure out what he was doing, until the diagram opened up on the monitor.

"You're opening up a boom tube?"

"I'm going to get her."

"Don't be stupid!"

"Too late."


	21. Chapter 21 Going In for the Kill

Nightweaver stepped out of the boom tube in Apokolips, fires raging around him everywhere. A thin, rocky pathway extended over a massive pit, the bottom a bubbling mass of molten rock. The sky itself seemed tainted by smoke, and he immediately understood why they called this planet Apokolips. He was still in the tattered pants that Rorschach had given him and nothing else; his armor had been disintegrated entirely, and he didn't have a spare set. He saw a lone Apokoliptian and willed him to be on the ground in front of him; in less than a second, it was done.

"Where's Darkseid?" The soldier struggled to speak between choked out breaths until Nightweaver loosened his telekinetic grip.

"The Master will destroy you!"

"Where?"

"Follow the bridge over the lava. You will find him." He pushed the Apokoliptian into the pit, almost finding his fiery death amusing. He brushed the thought away and continued on; getting over the bridge was tricky, and he often had to rebalance himself by gripping the small piece of stone like a sloth. By the time he'd gotten to the other side, he'd broken out in a heavy sweat. The soldier had been right, though. Darkseid's palace stood ominously nearby, having previously been hidden from his vision by rising clouds of smoke. He was standing at the steps, in fact, quite clearly made for somebody larger than himself. He took them one at a time until he reached the top, standing face to face with the massive stone double doors.

"Don't think knocking is very appropriate." He tried to push them open, but they wouldn't budge. Weaver tried to get them open for several minutes, but they were locked up tight, and wouldn't even be moved by his telekinesis. Eventually, he heard footsteps behind him, and he spun around to find himself the target of a massive army of Darkseid's minions.

"Surrender yourself, weakling!" their leader yelled just several steps below him.

"Not a chance." He encased himself in an armor of pure will, preventing anything from touching him, then strode calmly into the fray; a wall of warriors fired their weapons and tried to hit him, but each of their attacks bounced harmlessly away from him. He imagined two massive hands mirroring his to either side of him and clapped; in an instant, the majority of the army merged together in a bath of blood and gore. The rest of them continued their relentless assault, despite making no headway.

_Gotta give it to them. They've got balls. _He walked back up to the door and prepared himself for the largest strike he'd ever done, a ram the size of a skyscraper at his hand. The massive telekinetic construct smashed the door to pieces, revealing Darkseid on his stone throne inside. He brushed his guards away and stood to meet his challenger.

"Human. You have done me a great service by staying put long enough to acquire my weapon."

"Your weapon?"

"This... Raven. She never did understand the power she had, did she?"

"What do you want with her?"

"It's very simple. I am going to eradicate the human race in a wave of pure misery and occupy your pitiful planet for myself. It will serve as an excellent resource."

"You're not going to keep her. Kill them all, I don't care, but she comes with me."

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen!" Darkseid fired Omega Beams out of his eyes, but Weaver brought a field up to deflect it; not having the intended effect, he entered into a battle of the wills with Darkseid, just barely keeping the all-powerful rays at bay. He feinted right, then ducked left, giving him a spare second to knock Darkseid's legs out from under him. The god laughed at the attempt and swatted him away, easily breaking through his barrier and smashing him into the wall. Darkseid approached him slowly, a vicious smirk spreading across his face.

"Your attempt was valiant, but ultimately worthless." He prepared to fire another bolt at him, but Weaver rolled away and tried to escape. He fell over as Darkseid fired his Omega Beam at his feet, landing on his head. The world got very dark, and the last thing he saw before passing out was Darkseid taking his seat at his throne and sending his guards in to finish him off.


	22. Chapter 22 Disbanded

"Bruce, I don't know if you're listening, but I can't do what I do if you don't do what you do. I'll deliver the Robin costume to you some time this week. You've been a great mentor, and I'm sorry you feel it has to be this way." Dick Grayson took off his costume for the last time, a pang of sadness echoing through him as he unclipped the utility belt and took off his mask. He laid them down on his bed, slipped into some civilian clothes, and sat down on the edge of his bed, head in his hands.

_This is going to be a pretty big change. I'm going to need a good, long time alone. I'll probably leave the country. Maybe go somewhere in Europe. _He got on his computer and began typing a message to the other Titans.

_To all current Teen Titans, I have some sad news. Following the apparent retirement of Batman and the disappearance of two of our most important members, I have decided it is time for me to leave my life as Robin behind and become somebody new, somebody I create myself. I will be moving out of Titan's Tower and passing on leadership to Cyborg. I know he will do well. This is not a final goodbye; I will return when I feel the time is right. You have all been great friends to me, and I thank you for that, and for the best years in my life so far._

Starfire heard her communicator ping and checked the message. After scrolling through it quickly, she rushed to Dick's room to find it entirely empty, save for his desk and bed. She fell to her knees and stared at it blankly. Robin was gone.

_I'm afraid I'll have to decline the leadership position. BB and I talked it over, and we think it would be best for us to head to Chicago as a duo. The Titans just wouldn't be the same without everyone there._

_ I have received a transmission from my homeworld begging me to come back. They are in a state of great turmoil, and I'm afraid my only choices are to leave Earth or let my people die. I will return, friends._

Dick Grayson signed the last contract; the Tower would be shut down until a new team of Teen Titans decided to inhabit it. Until then, it would stand a lonely watch over Jump City, a reminder to all of the heroes that made the city great.


	23. Chapter 23 The League

"Alright, everybody. We're three months out from the Apokoliptian invasion. How are things in Gotham, Batman?" Bruce stood to answer Bruce's question, his first appearance in front of the Justice League since the attack on Titan's Tower.

"The city is almost back to normal. We suffered minimal damage in the first place."

"The Bat Family had Gotham pretty much locked down" Flash reported.

"Good. Metropolis is still heavily damaged, but we're working through it." Superman seemed sobered at the thought of his half-destroyed home, but snapped out of it. "How are the Titans doing since they disbanded?"

"Nightwing hasn't been heard from, Cyborg and Beast Boy are setting up a home base in Chicago as threy said they would, and Starfire is still on Tamaran," Wonder Woman interjected. An awkward silence settled over the room, and Batman was first to address it.

"Nightweaver and Raven have yet to be seen. I suspect they have been captured and brought to Apokolips."

"We can't risk the world to save two people, Batman. I'm sorry, but if they're going to get out of there, they'll have to find a way themselves. A rescue mission might make Darkseid attack."

"I know."

"Let's just hope they don't mind being sacrificed for the greater good _again_," Red Hood said from the back of the room, having been watching over the meeting silently until then.

"They're probably _dead_, you ingrate! Who cares if they feel a little bad?!" Wonder Woman shouted; she'd never liked Jason.

"I do," Green Arrow said.

"I do", Batman followed.

"Same," Superman agreed. "Wonder Woman, could you leave the room, please?" She glared at him, but consented and left. "I propose a vote to exclude Diana from any votes involving the situation of Raven and Nightweaver being captured." The other four members agreed with his proposition, and he left to break the news to her.

"So, what _do_ we do?" Ollie asked.

"I propose that we begin accepting volunteers for a search and rescue mission. High possibility of casualties. I will lead the expedition," Batman said, serious as a heart attack.

"I'm going," Red Hood said, coming to stand at the table. "I can deal with dying in Apokolips. Worse places to go."

"I can't," Flash said, separating himself from the pack. "I'm going to help rebuild and prepare for a counterassault."

"I'm in. I'll get Arsenal on it too, if he wants to," Green Arrow announced. The room was silent for several minutes before Jason broke the silence.

"You don't have to choose now, but they're on borrowed time. Make a decision quickly. Get word out to everybody. Let's get going on this."

"He's right. We need to assemble quickly. My communicator is always on," Green Arrow noted, sending the League on to the next topic.


	24. Chapter 24 Awakening

Simon tried to open his eyes, but they weren't responding. He couldn't get his eyelids to move much, so he decided to just wait it out.

_I hurt. A lot._ He knew the large majority of his bones were broken, and he was weak from blood loss. Something was holding him by the wrists to a cold, stone wall. Something felt familiar, but he couldn't focus on it for more than a few seconds. He tried pulling himself away, but the restraints dug into his wrists and he had to stop. He managed to crack the scabs open on his eyelids. He saw a hint of grey and immediately realized what it was; the smell. The unmistakable scent that demonic magic leaves behind, like a mixture of ash and pig's blood.

_Raven. They brought me right to her!_ He forced his eyes the rest of the way open; it was worse than he thought.

Her cloak was entirely gone, and her unitard was tattered and hung off of her limply. She'd been visibly injured, most likely the result of the same beatings Weaver had been subjected to. Her face was colored multiple shades of purple and blue, and her breathing was sharp and strained. He tried to call out to her, but all that came out was a dry croak.

_Dammit! Three goddamn feet away from her and I can't get a word out to her! _He kept trying, and was eventually able to get something out resembling speech.

"Rae... Rae..." Her head slowly came up, her unswollen eye staring straight at him.

"Simon...?"

"I came... save you..." She tried to smile, but her lip was too cracked.

"I'm done for... you get out..." He could feel his wounds begin to heal themselves, and he started shaking his head violently.

"No... save your strength... we'll make it." She stopped, and Weaver tried to focus on getting himself free by using his telekinesis to tear the chains from the wall. After several minutes of pulling, they finally came loose, and he dropped to his hands and knees in front of her, laughing almost maniacally.

"Wh-what?"

"We're in _literally _the worst situation... I've ever been in... you know what the shit of it is? I'm _glad_. Glad because, after we get out of here, things will be so much better..."

"You can... get out..."

"Not alone." He unlocked her shackles and lowered her to the ground gently. "Can you walk?" She shook her head, and he scooped her up and checked around the corner; there were four guards blocking the exit.

_Guess my best move is to make my own door. _He used his telekinesis to blast through the wall and charged through the rubble, not sure where he was going but knowing it was his best chance to save them both. He saw the harsh fire pits that marked Apokolips' outside and knew he would have to hide somewhere; he kept running, carrying Raven along the way, until he found a deep cave that tunneled down into the depths of the hellish planet. He found a comfortable spot inside of the cave and laid Raven down, being careful to put her down as gently as possible.

"Raven, Darkseid can see us wherever we are, but you can probably block him with your magic. I don't want to ask you to do this, but it might be vital to our survival."

"I've been blocking him... since we left..."

"Thank you. Is there anything I can do to help you? Relieve the pain?"

"Get... us... _home..._"

_There's only one way off of Darkseid, and that would involve getting a Mother Box. There's only one way to do that._ He sighed, fearing the daunting task ahead.


	25. Chapter 25 The Crew

"Roll call!" Red Hood yelled; the mission was nearly ready to go. He went down the list, making sure everybody that responded was actually there.

"Batman's here, I know that... Green Arrow?"

"I'm ready to go."

"Arsenal?"

"Good to go."

"Night- Nightwing? Who the hell is Nightwing?"

"Me." Batman turned to stare at Dick Grayson, and the two nodded to each other, differences resolved.

"Superman's on his way, Supergirl is with him... Deadshot?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

"Deathstroke?"

"Ready."

"Green Lantern?"

"Gotcha."

"Aquaman... you really sure you want to be here? There literally isn't a drop of water on Apokolips." Aquaman didn't bother responding, he just stepped onto the Watchtower's teleporter and left. "Hawkgirl and Hawkman?"

"We're here," Hawkgirl announced. Superman and Supergirl arrived, and the mission was ready to go. Batman stepped to the front of the room and took the podium, going over the mission plan.

"We enter Apokolips via the Mother Box attached to the Watchtower. There's no way of knowing exactly where we're going to land, seeing as there are no known maps of Apokolips. It is safe to assume that Nightweaver and Raven will be contained somewhere within or near Darkseid's main palace. Team One will consist of myself, Superman, Supergirl, and Green Lantern. Team Two will consist of Arsenal, Green Arrow, Red Hood, and Deathstroke. Team Three will consist of everybody else not placed into teams one or two. Now, Team One's job is going to be to distract and or defeat Darkseid, to prevent him from stopping the other teams. Team Three is going to do the same, but to Apokolips' main army. Team Two will handle the actual search and rescue portion of the operation. You have been chosen specifically because your abilities are solely yours, and not because of any magic or other outside force. No matter what Darkseid does, he _cannot _take them away from you. Keep that in mind. The leaders of the teams are to be _democratically _chosen; this will give us optimal power. Do what you have to do to get your jobs done. We launch in fifteen minutes." He stepped off of the podium, leaving the groups to themselves.

Red Hood, Arsenal, Green Arrow, and Deathstroke clustered together at the back of the room, talking to themselves.

"Who's leading us, guys?" Arsenal asked quickly, anxious to get going.

"I should," Green Arrow said, ignoring Deathstroke's glare. "Arsenal's my sidekick, and no offense to you two, but we don't know if we can trust you."

"I was one of the ones that helped get this whole thing together," Red Hood pointed out.

"I helped train the damn kid," Slade countered. "If anybody here wants him back, it's _me_. Not to mention I helped train you, Arrow, and as a result, your sidekick too."

"And, not to be a dick or anything, but I think you lead enough," Arsenal said almost sheepishly. "I don't want to, either. I'm not taking that responsibility."

"I'll do it if you won't," Jason said to Deathstroke.

"I'll do it," Deathstroke said, standing up and straightening himself out.

"So then what's the plan, big guy?" Arrow asked.

"I elect Batman leads our team," Superman said as soon as Team One got together.

"I do as well," Supergirl followed. Lantern nodded his approval, and Batman decided to explain his plan then and there.

"We'll start by getting rid of his palace itself. When we get it, we're going to need Hal to use his ring to create several nuclear missiles. He'll decimate the palace and hopefully injure Darkseid while Superman and Supergirl will either attack Darkseid personally or one of you will have to go and get our greatest weapon."

"You can't possibly mean...?" Superman asked, hesitating at the thought. Batman nodded and continued on.

"You don't have to if you think the risk is too great, but we will almost certainly win if we use it. Otherwise, I will handle Darkseid's personal guards while you three fight Darkseid. He shouldn't be able to hold all of you at bay at once. Superman and Supergirl, you'll most likely want to freeze his eyes with your breath. His Omega beams will take the both of you out easily without some kind of counter."

"It's time, people!" Red Hood yelled out. The Mother Box activated and opened up a boom tube to Apokolips appeared.

"I'll go and get him," Supergirl told Batman, speeding off towards the airlock and into deep space.

"Time to go," Batman said, being the first one through the portal, followed closely by Jason Todd and the rest of the crew.

Batman's entrance was greeted immediately with resistance; as he stepped through to the other side, an Apokoliptian rifle butted him in the face, sending him reeling, but the Dark Knight responded with a cluster of concussion grenades, scattering the squads directly in front of the boom tube and allowing his allies to follow him through. Team Three rushed through and took the fight to the Apokoliptians, pushing them back and fighting them to a standstill while Green Lantern launched his light construct nukes at Darkseid's palace. The first pierced the roof, sending the darkened bricks flying in all directions as explosion after explosion rocked the planet. He created several layers of shielding surrounding the heros, keeping them safe from the explosions.

"There wasn't any real uranium in there, so there shouldn't be any radiation. Just the explosion," Hal explained just before he dropped the shield and let the fighting continue on. A large portion of the Apokoliptian army had been destroyed, but the remaining forces kept on fighting against Team Three. Team One rushed towards the rubble; Superman reached Darkseid first, the vibrations from his punches felt even from their distance. Green Lantern grabbed Batman and the two flew to face the dark god.

Darkseid was on one knee, Superman's fist in his hand - he'd evidently caught one of the Man of Steel's punches before it could be delivered. He shot his Omega beams at the same moment Superman used his heat vision, the two lasers colliding in midair as they engaged in a battle of wills. Green Lantern interrupted it before anybody could win, smashing a light-construct jet into Darkseid's head and knocking him over. Superman took the opportunity to free himself from Darkseid's grip and started pounding on him with all his strength as Batman grabbed a hammer from one of Darkseid's Furies and smashed it into the side of her head, sending her to the ground and leaving him encircled by the rest. He dropped the hammer and moved into a defensive stance, taunting them to attack.

"Let's go! We've got to find them before Team One gets killed!" Deathstroke yelled, motioning for the rest of the team to follow him. Green Arrow and Arsenal ran past him into a lower floor in the palace, stopping on the other side, while Red Hood checked their backs to make sure they weren't being followed.

"There's got to be some kind of sign to lead us to the prison area," Arsenal pointed out.

"Yeah, and it'll be in Apokoliptian. They don't speak English, moron," Red Hood said, stating the obvious.

"Sorry. Just trying to speed this up." They came to a crossroads in the hallway, giving them three new directions to go in.

"You three check all of the passages. Return in two minutes. I'll stay here and watch your backs," Slade ordered. Red Hood ran off down the left hallway, Green Arrow went straight, and Arsenal took the right.

Jason yanked his pistols out of their holsters and turned the corner, aiming straight ahead.

_Clear. Hope they're in here._ He rounded the next corner to find four Apokoliptian soldiers huddled around a fire, cooking some kind of stew in a pot.

"Hey! Pay attention, you idiots!" He fired as fast as he could, draining both of his guns of ammo as he put the Apokoliptians down. He pushed the last one standing down as his blood began to pool at his feet, landing with a loud _splat_. He turned the final corner to see a pair of chains torn from the wall and a massive hole not too far from them.

_Slimy bastard. The other's will follow me in a minute. Might as well go after them myself, _he thought as he rushed out into the dust, making sure to leave deep footprints as he went.


	26. Chapter 26 It Worked!

"Incoming!" Supergirl yelled, carrying a metal casket through the boom tube and smashing it into Darkseid's abdomen, stunning him for a moment as she ripped it open. Superman grabbed Batman and flew away, as did Green Lantern and Supergirl. Darkseid attempted to fire his Omega beams at them, but a scaly hand grabbed him by the throat before he could. Doomsday rose from his tomb and smashed him into the ground over and over, leaving a massive crater beneath him. He hit Doomsday in the face several times, loosening his grip enough to let him get his feet under him, then grabbed the beast and tried to snap his back over his knee, only succeeding in digging Doomsday's spines into his leg. He caught a spiked knee to the jaw, bringing Doomsday back on top.

"I think those two will take care of each other. Let's help Team Three out," Superman suggested, the rest agreeing.

"Nightweaver! Raven!" Red Hood yelled, trying desperately to find them. He kept running and running until he came upon a small hill; he bent over and caught his breath for a moment, knowing the others would be following him.

_What the hell is that? _he wondered; there was a hole in the ground with a set of footprints leading into it. _Maybe it's them? _He stepped inside, careful not to lose his footing.

"Simon! You in there?!" he yelled, hoping that those were his footsteps.

"Here! We're here!" he yelled from deep inside of the cave.

"Stay there, I'm coming to get you!" He ran downwards, eventually seeing the light from a small fire. He rounded the bend to see Nightweaver kneeling over Raven. She seemed like she was barely conscious.

"The Justice League launched a whole offensive to find you two. We need to get going."

"Raven needs medical attention badly."

"So... so... so do you..." she croaked out.

"She's right, Weaver. You look like hammered shit."

"I'll be fine. Get her out of here."

"You're coming too. There's nothing for you to do here."

"I can fight."

"Ove-over half your bones are b-broken..." Raven stammered out.

"I'll be fine! Just get her home."

"There's not a chance in hell I'm leaving either one of you here." Jason scooped Raven up, cradling her gently. "That includes you, Simon."

"You'd kick my ass in two seconds flat in my current condition, Todd. I don't want to leave the people that are trying to help me, but you know you can stop me."

"I will. You can pay these people back plenty of other ways. Surviving being one of them. The faster we get out of here, the less danger they're all in."

"Fine, but I'm not happy about it."

"Shut up, Weaver... just get us out of here..." Jason gestured for him to follow, and Simon limped along behind him towards the cave's exit. They ran into the rest of the team about halfway up; Jason came face-to-point with Deathstroke's sword.

"I've got them, Slade. Secure extraction."

"Arsenal!" he yelled.

"Got it! " Arsenal yelled back. The rest of the team entered the cave and helped Nightweaver out, who was already breathing heavily.

"Keep him down!" Superman yelled as Darkseid finally wrestled Doomsday off of him. Supergirl and Green Lantern teamed up to fight Darkseid back down; Lantern smashed an AC-130 into him, bringing him back down to the ground, as Supergirl punched his eyes in. Doomsday swatted her away, then climbed back on top of Darkseid and started the beatdown again. Hal caught her with a light construct baseball glove, then lowered her unconscious body through the boom tube into the Watchtower.

"Team Two, we have the targets! Begin the retreat!" Deathstroke's voice came loud and clear over their communicators. The combined heroes and villains moved backwards towards the boom tube, letting Team Two bring Raven and Nightweaver through first.

"You ready, Rae?"

"Yeah... back to the Tower..."

"No tower anymore, kid. The Teen Titans officially disbanded," Slade explained. Weaver snapped his head in his direction, not believing the news.

"What? Robin too?"

"Nightwing now."

"Cyborg?"

"Left to go to Chicago with Beast Boy."

"Starfire?"

"Gone. Only the other Titans know, and they aren't telling, for whatever reasons."

"Shit..." Weaver spat, trying to figure out what they would do now.

"Worry about it l-later..." Raven sputtered out.

"We need to get her help!"

"She'll be taken care of. Go!" Red Hood ordered. He listened, stepping through the boom tube back into Earth's orbit.


	27. Chapter 27 What Now?

A month passed before either Nightweaver or Raven would wake up; they'd been running almost entirely on adrenaline the entire time that they were in Apokolips. The Justice League closed the boom tube, and Earth hadn't suffered from a counterattack yet. When news got out to the former Titans that they were both finally awake, all of them came as quickly as they could to visit their injured friends.

"Weaver? Raven?" Nightwing called out as he entered the Watchtower's infirmary. Raven was hovering slightly above her bed, reading a book, while Weaver crawled out of his and stretched out.

"Robin. Good to see you."

"Nightwing."

"Right. Good you're here, though. We need to talk. Alone."

"You don't have to do that. I know you're worried," Raven said, turning to look at them. "Anything you have to say to him you can say to me."

"Rae, please."

"If it's about me, shouldn't I hear it?"

"Raven, I'll fill you in later, I promise. I just want to hear him out." She glared at them, then turned back to her reading. Dick and Simon walked out of the room, whispering to each other.

"I think she's gone through trauma. Something's wrong with her."

"I can tell."

"I just want to get her the help she needs. She got tortured, for god's sake. She doesn't deserve this."

"You're right. Any ideas?"

"We should find her somebody she can talk to. Somebody other than me. Talking to me won't help because I was a part of it."

"I understand. I think it would be best for you two to stay apart for a while."

"Not a good idea. She needs support, and if I pull that out from under her, things will just get worse." They were interrupted by a set of loud footsteps.

"How did you get here?" Nightwing asked Slade as he came around the corner.

"Just wanted to make sure the kid was alright. I'm not here for you."

"I'm fine, Slade. Look, I appreciate the check up, but it's probably not the best idea for you to be here."

"Understood. You come talk to me if you need anything." He left, being replaced soon by Jason Todd.

"Everything alright?"

"Not exactly, but it'll be fine with time."

"What's up?"

"Not now."

"Well look, you remember Arsenal, right?"

"Yeah, he was on the rescue team."

"Well, it turns out that he's gotten himself stuck in a prison in Qurac. We could use some help."

"What about Ollie?"

"They aren't exactly on speaking terms."

"Gotcha. Give me some time."

"I can only give as much as he's got. I'd say you've got a week or so." They shook hands, and Weaver noticed that Nightwing had left.

_Well then. He's really trying to be like Bruce._

"Look who's back!" Beast Boy yelled, giving Weaver a high five as Cyborg came through the Watchtower's teleporter behind him, towing along a case behind. Red Hood had left about ten minutes before, and Simon had been trying to process things in his mind in the meantime before going to talk to Raven again.

"Yo man, real sorry we couldn't make it to the rescue op. We were getting set up in Chicago and nobody bothered to tell us."

"Don't worry about it. What you got there?"

"A little present. I still had the blueprints from your last suit, so..." He popped the latches off of the case, revealing a black and blue suit of armor, similar to his old one, but with visible upgrades, specifically to the gloves and boots.

"What's different about this one?" Weaver asked, curious about what Victor had done.

"Nano drills in the extremities."

"Translation?"

"They'll drill into anything you try to climb. Anything you want to stick to, you've got it."

"Sweet."

"I did have to take out the tasers and boot knives. You didn't seem to use them too much, right?"

"This'll work, Cy. Thanks. And really, don't worry about not being able to help. Shit happens."

"So, what are you and Rae gonna do, now that the Teen Titans is gone?"

"I don't know, man. I'm supposed to be helping Red Hood spring Arsenal, but after that, I don't know."

"We'd invite you to come with us, but we're kinda cramped," Beast Boy interjected. Cyborg nodded in agreement, confirming his excuse.

"It's alright. I'll find something."

"Just you? You and Rae not a package deal anymore?" BB asked a little too quickly.

"I don't know right now. She's a little out of it right now. Emotional trauma and all. She had it worse than I did."

"We heard you two were beat up pretty bad when you got back. They had to get Doctor Fate and Zatanna to operate on you two to get you back to normal."

"Well, whatever they did, it worked for me. Raven's fine physically, but I don't think her mental scars are going to heal for a while."

"They aren't," Raven said, having stepped into the room while Weaver was talking.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to talk about you behind your back, they're just worried about you."

"I know. You all are. I'm glad for it, but _don't_. I'm fine. Just leave me alone." She fell through a portal she opened in the ground, leaving the room in silence.

"She's acting like she did when she first joined the Titans," Cyborg noticed.

"That's not good," BB pointed out, stating the obvious.

"Look, man, you should probably get out of here. I heard about where they've got Roy, and it's not a good place to be. Rae needs some time alone, and you've got a POW to rescue."

"Thanks, Cy. And for the suit, too."

"No problem, man. Any time."

"And you too, little man."

"You aren't much older than I am, turd nugget," BB retorted, insulted.

"I'll see you guys later. See if I can catch up to the Hood."

"Wasn't expecting it to be that fast, Weaver."

"Got some help," he said, walking along beside Red Hood as he clicked his gloves into place on his suit. The HUD spurred to life, entirely redesigned from the last model; it had more detailed life support readouts, and it could automatically identify anybody he asked it to by doing long range analysis on their genetic coding.

_Gotta admit. I'm a little impressed._ He hopped in the copilot's seat of Jason's helicopter, parked neatly on the Hall of Justice's front lawn.

"Really good hiding spot for your wheels, man."

"Nobody'd dare screw with my chopper. Especially because they don't realize it's my chopper."

"You devious little bastard." They took off, leaving Metropolis in the dust under them as they started on a course south.

"Let me give you a quick rundown. I won't spoil too much. You have been lied to recently, I will give you that. And we're headed to Miami first."

"Just tell me."

"Nope."

"I don't like being toyed with, Jason."

"I'm piloting. I'll toy as much as I want," he said with a smirk spreading across his face.

"You're a dick, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know. I do have a question for you, though."

"And that is?"

"I know you've died before. It was really big to me. I'm still getting over the whole undead thing. But you? You just walked right through it. How the hell did you do that?"

"Hate."

"Hate?"

"Hate. I wanted Sionis dead more than anything else in the world. I didn't care that I was the product of some unnatural process. I came back and I finished the job."

"See, but I don't feel the same way. I want nothing more than to torture the Joker for a few delicious hours before finally planting that final bullet in his brain..." He drifted off for a moment, relishing the thought. "But I can't let that drive me. I wish I could, but it's something I kinda put on the backburner. If I get the opportunity, he's a dead man, but I don't feel like I can go on a manhunt like that."

"Be glad for that, Todd. You don't want to. I thought that killing Roman would bring me some kind of salvation, but it turned out to just be another step in a larger event that I'm sure isn't going to be over any time soon. Hell, I don't even know if he's dead now. I survived that blast, by some mathematical miracle. I've got no guarantee he didn't either."

"You know what makes you the winner, though?"

"Hmm?"

"Black Mask didn't have half the damned Justice League lined up ready to search the multiverse for him." Weaver couldn't help but smile at the realization.

_It doesn't matter if he's dead or not. Nobody likes him. The crime lords of Gotham always wanted him dead. He was just a tool the whole time. Yeah, he might have seriously screwed over my life a couple dozen times, but I'm the one that came out on the other side with people who care about me. The only person who cared about him was me - and I'm past that now. _

"So, what ever happened to your psycho ex? She didn't die in that fiasco, did she?"

"Pretty sure Nightwing is keeping her in holding in Arkham."

"Keep an eye on that."

"Why?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Arkham is about as effective at keeping psychopaths in as Batman is in keeping girlfriends. Trust me, I speak from experience."

"Can't argue with that. Hell, Joker's screwing the brains out of one of the psychiatrists."

"Quinn? Bitch is downright _crazy_. And whoever gave her a degree must have been too. I can't see her IQ being above fifty."

"Don't mean to be a buzzkill, but I'm gonna catch some Z's before we get there."

"Weren't you just in a goddamn coma for a month?"

"It's all magic. Gun to my head, I couldn't explain any of it."

"I gotcha. Go for it. I'll wake you up when we get there."


	28. Chapter 28 Nightweaver the Outlaw

"You're not serious. This can't be real," Weaver said, staring in disbelief.

"Afraid so. She lied to you guys."

"Star, _really?_"

"I'd prefer if you called me Kori now. And please don't tell the others."

"Why would you lie, though?"

"I grew tired of our group. I loved you all like family, but I was bored."

"You couldn't just _say _that?"

"I wanted to avoid hurting my friends' feelings. I am sorry, Simon." He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, then took a deep breath.

"It's alright. But you will have to let them know at some point."

"I understand. Thank you, friend." She smiled sweetly, and they moved on to the plan.

"Roy's somewhere in here," Jason explained, making a circle with his finger over a Quraqi prison. "I'll go in in disguise, then-"

"We're both pasty white, Jason. Shouldn't Star be doing this? Not that a little sunburn's gonna keep me down, but come on."

"She's tan enough for both of us. Now, I'll spring Roy, but you need to make a distraction, Weaver."

"I can do that."

"They've got tanks," Kori advised.

"Lots of them," Jason seconded.

"I can keep them down."

"Alright. Kori, you'll be our extraction. Weaver, can you get to the RZ in time?" Jason drew a line between the prison and a field outside of the nearby village.

"If I go through the village, yeah."

"That's going to endanger the civilians. Can't let you do that, buddy."

"So I have to go _around _the _entire village_?"

"That appears to be the case."

"Could we relocate the RZ to somewhere I could actually get to?"

"Probably not. There aren't many flat places in the desert, even less nearby, and even less that provide enough cover to hide a helicopter."

"Say we don't use the helicopter."

"Then how do we leave?"

"This is a military base. We could make some money here too. I can see several hangars on this map. I'd be willing to bet at least one of them has an AC-130. That's good money."

"I'm good for it if you are, Kori."

"It would be delightful."

"We ship out at 0300, then. Weaver, you want to train a bit? I'd imagine you're a little rusty."

"Probably a good idea." They strolled out of the crashed alien ship they were using as a base and onto the sunny Miami beach; they were far enough out not to get noticed, but still close enough to enjoy all of the luxuries.

"So, you like it here?"

"Loving it so far. Although I _am_ surprised that you didn't head back to Gotham."

"That city deserves itself. Nothing good has happened there for decades."

"Can't argue with that." They reached a soft sandbar, the blue waves slapping against the pale sand in an uneasy rhythm. A single palm tree stood large over them, casting a shadow that cooled the sand down enough to stand barefoot in comfortably. Jason took a swing at Simon, catching him cleanly on the side of the head.

"Dude, what the fuck?! You've got to tell me before you just start beating the hell out of me!"

"Enemies won't. Got to train for the real thing." Weaver ducked under a roundhouse and tackled Jason's other leg, sending him toppling to the ground as Simon grabbed his ankle and twisted. Jason rolled over and tucked bringing his foot - and Weaver's head - hard into the ground. Simon could barely roll over before Jason grabbed his arm and forced him back onto his stomach, wrenching his arm at an extreme angle.

"Nice, nice, but you're forgetting one thing," Weaver said between ragged breaths. "Always plan ahead!" He looped his legs around Jason's, pulling him off of him. They both scrambled to their feet; while Weaver was out of breath, Jason was doing fine.

"Tired already?"

"Not really, no."

"_Bullshit._" He kicked Weaver in the stomach, winding him, then slung him over his shoulder and slammed him into the ground. He didn't get back up, giving a weary time out signal with his hands. Jason's watch beeped and he checked it, then turned to look at Weaver.

"Raven's coming."

"Think that would be the first time I had warning. How do you know?"

"The ship Kori has has great sensors. It's amazing. I'll have Roy explain it all when we get back. You better take care of your girl."

"Thanks for the heads up." He got up and walked back to the ship, his head swimming. Weaver stepped into his room, laid down on the bed, and waited.

After a few minutes, Raven finally poked her head through the doorway, knocking on it lightly.

"No portal this time?"

"I didn't want to catch you by surprise."

"Never been a problem before."

"It's different this time."

"How so?"

"Because this is probably going to be the last time." His heart skipped a beat, but he'd known this was a possibility since leaving the Watchtower.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Rae, but I understand if you feel it does."

"I hate being so off and on... but I think that I need some time to myself. To readjust."

"To forget."

"Yes. I want to forget everything that happened on Apokolips."

"I'm with you there."

"I just don't think that I can while I'm around you. I mean, I know that I'll never _forget _it, but I can at least get over it. You'd just be a constant reminder."

"I'm okay with that. Not being a reminder - I mean that I know what you mean."

"Damn it, Simon, stop taking this so well. You're starting to make me feel bad."

"If you didn't, I'd be a little worried."

"In all seriousness... I'm glad you understand. At the risk of sounding cliche, you've come a long way from that immature little brat you used to be."

"Dying'll do that to you sometimes." He smiled and invited her over to the bed; she obliged and laid down, the two of them staring at the ceiling together.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Jason needs me to help him with something. I'll take care of that first. From there, I don't know. I might try and stick around for a while. I don't know how long I'll go without killing somebody without some help."

"That's a good idea. He's a good guy, deep down."

"And you?"

"I have no idea. I might go back to Azarath, see if the monks can help me. I can't say I have as many options as you do."

"I have one."

"Exactly."

"You could try the Justice League Dark."

"No, too many of those people were on Apokolips. I can feel the the echoes of that assault radiating off of them."

"You don't seem to be too bothered by the memory. Do you really have to leave?"

"It's very painful. You know how my powers can be sometimes. If I don't control the pain-"

"Bad things happen. I'm not going to come after you or try to stop you. You do what you need to do, Raven. When you come back, I swear to whatever deity I haven't pissed off yet that I'll be here. I'm done jumping from girl to girl. Kitrina was a mistake, and I see that now. All she did was distract me from what really mattered."

"What if I never come back?"

"Then I guess I'm going to be alone forever." They turned to each other, face to face.

"Hmph."

"Was that the right answer?" he asked, smirking, his mouth twisted slightly to the side.

"You know, I've always loved that look on your face, when you know you're being an ass, but you _also _know that you're being too adorable for me to hit you for it."

"Adorable. That's a new one. I much prefer devious, or hilarious, or just plain awesome, maybe even badasstacular..."

"I could just take that back and hit you, you know." They were both smiling now, staring into each other's eyes mournfully.

"You wouldn't."

"I'm going to miss you." Weaver wasn't expecting the sudden turn into seriousness, but took it as it went.

"I'm going to miss you, too."

"I promise, I'll come back as soon as I feel that I can."

"Just keep in mind that no matter what happens, I'm your friend, and I'm here for you." They settled into a comfortable silence for several minutes, content to just lay there and wait; neither of them were thinking about a thing in the world, simply glad that it wasn't over yet, but knowing that it wouldn't last as long as either of them wanted.

"I love you, Raven."

"I love you, too."

**A/N - Aaaaand that's a wrap! Keeping the various time lapses in mind, Nightweaver - and some of the Titans - had outgrown the "teen" part, and I felt that I had to chronologically move forward. If you want to continue reading in this series, you'll have to either go through my page or head over to Red Hood and the Outlaws in the Comics section. As I did with Years One and Two, it will continue to take largely from the **_**entire **_**DC Universe, but with a focus on the title group.**

**Plans for Nightweaver, Year Three!**

** \- Incorporate storylines from the actual Red Hood and the Outlaws comics, but changed to accommodate Nightweaver's presence, changing the outcome of things; not only that, but he'll dramatically increase the group's notoriety, possibly causing them more harm than good.**

** \- Keep tabs on the dismantled Teen Titans, most likely in mini-chapters in between the main ones. This will consist of Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Nightwing - Raven and Starfire wouldn't be included, because both of them play more major roles in the story.**

** \- Not disclude the other characters from the team! As I'm currently actually keeping up with RHATO, I'm a lot more up to date on the state of affairs, and I personally love the dynamic those three have together (so of course, my first instinct it to throw my own spin on it!). In short, I'll be correcting something I've felt was a large mistake on my part in leaving out the rest of the Titans for the most part.**

**\- I'd very much so like to include some original villains to keep the DCU on its toes.**

** \- Some large, universe-changing events controlled by the largest powerhouses that DC has to offer. **

** \- The real truth of what happened along the way to turn Simon Weaver into the person that he is today, from the odd details of his birth to what really happened to his parents, and who was involved the whole way through.**

** Well, that's all, folks. Hope you enjoyed the read. If not, tell me why! Just don't be a dick about it, 'cuz I'll be a dick back. If you plan on being an ass, to quote one Stephen King, "fuhgettaboutit."**


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